Civilisations
1737 to 1794, England
The decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
Start learning Edward →How Gibbon traced, across thirteen centuries and six volumes, the long collapse of the greatest empire of the ancient world - creating the supreme masterpiece of historical narrative.
Gibbon’s answer to the greatest question in history - what brought down the Roman Empire - and his famous, controversial diagnosis of the causes of decline.
Gibbon’s scandalous achievement - treating the rise of Christianity not as divine truth but as a historical phenomenon with natural causes, founding the secular study of religion.
Gibbon’s incomparable style - the elegant, ironic, magisterial prose that made history a supreme literary art and embodied the cool skepticism of the Enlightenment.
What the fall of Rome teaches about the fate of civilisations - and Gibbon’s own surprising verdict on whether modern civilisation could suffer the same fate.
epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.