Talk:Edward Gibbon
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Archive: through 2006.
[edit] Project
I added him to the Muslim scholars wikiproject, since he wrote a lot about islam, even though he was not Muslim. --Striver 16:39, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
- Gibbon generally isn't considered a "Muslim scholar"... --JW1805 (Talk) 18:29, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
- No he most certainly isn't. But I think this article is disappointing in failing to address Gibbon's view of muslim history. I would imagine that there were generations of English-speaking readers for whom Gibbon was the principal source for the life of Mohammed and the early history of Islam. It certainly seems unbalanced to devote a section, however small, to Gibbon's anti-semitism, while failing to discuss his role as a Western historian of Islam. 195.58.126.131 (talk) 19:24, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
[edit] His political ideals
If a man were called to fix a period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of virtue and wisdom.
The age of the Antonine Emperors was for Gibbon an age of tolerance, of domestic peace and of social harmony. But yet something is missing; and that something is what Gibbon refers to as the 'inestimable gift of freedom.' I am not talking here about 'democracy', which for Gibbon was a dangerous thing, but the concept of the 'balanced constitution'; of law, social responsibility, civic duty and good governance all working in harmony; the kind of constitution that emerged in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution in England. It is, if you like, also the constitution of the old Roman Republic at its zenith, before it was destroyed by mob violence, class conflict and civil war. For Gibbon civilized life has to be based on an ideal combination of order and 'rational freedom', created by the Republic but lost by the Empire. The Empire, even the Empire of the Antonines, was based on despotism, and as such was "destitute of constitutional freedom." The Antonine state was, as he puts it, "an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of the commonwealth." In other words, if the rule of the Antonines was benevolent it was benevolent by chance alone. It gave rise to Marcus Aurelius; but it could just as easily give way to Commodus.
The contrast Gibbon draws between Aurelius, the father, and Commodus, the son, was intended to highlight the fragility of the whole Antonine age. Benevolence had been created by chance, not by design, the fundamental truth that lies at the root of all despotism. The image of liberty, to put this another way, was not the same as true liberty. Gibbon admired Marcus Aurelius-just as he admired Frederick the Great-for his personal qualities; but imperial rule was still "absolute and without control." For Gibbon it is a mark of a truly good society that no single individual should be entrusted with absolute power-"Unless public liberty is protected by intrepid and vigilant guardians the authority of so formidable a magistrate will degenerate into despotism." After all, virtue and wisdom are not hereditary.
The other point connected to this-and herein lies the real explanation for the subsequent and relentless decline of the Roman world-is that benevolent despotism is demoralising and enervating. Under the Antonines the days of Cicero and the free nobility are long gone; private comfort has replaced civic responsibility: the Empire is set to decline because the 'will to freedom' has been lost-"as long as they [the nobility] were indulged in the enjoyment of their baths, their theatres and their villas, they cheerfully resigned the more dangerous cares of empire." More than this, in public felicity lay the latent causes of corruption-"The Roman monarchy, having attained its full strength and maturity, began to verge towards its decline." The causes are internal, and the Empire could never have fallen to Barbarians, or been undermined by the Christians, if it had not already been corrupted from within. The Romans may have retained personal valour, but they no longer "possessed that public courage, which is nourished by the love of independence."
Ultimately, Gibbon's view of the whole Roman world, no matter his residual sympathy, is one condescension and superiority; of celebration of his own time, of the age of virtue and progress. Clio the Muse 01:30, 5 July 2007 (UTC)
- I copied the text of Clio's reply from WP:RD/H, in hopes that would be useful for folks who decide, sooner or later, to add a section about the ideology behind Gibbon's great work. --Ghirla-трёп- 18:32, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Help: Quotation
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Auskunft/Archiv/2007/Dez#Gibbon-Zitat_auf_Englisch_gesucht --Historiograf (talk) 00:57, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
