Gibbon, Edward (1737–1794)

GIBBON, EDWARD (1737–1794)

GIBBON, EDWARD (1737–1794), the leading English historian of the eighteenth century, famous for his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The affluent only son of Edward Gibbon, a member of Parliament and country gentleman, Gibbon was briefly at Magdalen College, Oxford. The formative experience was his years in Lausanne (1753–1758). There he received an important introduction to Enlightenment thought and also defined his political judgments with reference to the various government structures and practices of the Swiss cantons, leading to his unpublished Letter on the Government of Berne. In 1758, Gibbon began the Essai sur l'étude de la littérature (Essay on the study of literature), a work that focused on the controversy of the ancients and moderns, providing a clear defense of the former.

After he had spent some time in England, Gibbon's next formative experience was a visit to Italy in 1764–1765. At Rome in 1764, he "trod, with a lofty step, the ruins of the Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus stood, or Tully spoke, or Caesar fell . . . it was at Rome . . . as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing Vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind."

As a member of Parliament in 1774–1784, Gibbon was a supporter of the government of Lord North against the American Revolution and was a member of the Board of Trade in 1779–1782. Not a natural speaker, Gibbon did not enjoy being in Parliament, and preferred retirement to Lausanne.

Gibbon's History (6 vols., 1776–1788) was a masterpiece of scholarship and skepticism and led to his being regarded in England as the leading historian of his generation. Based on formidable reading across a range of languages, and supported by over 8,300 references and a sound knowledge of the geography of the Classical world, the work contrasted with the less profound and philosophical character of most contemporary historical work. Gibbon attributed the fall of Rome in part to the rise of Christianity, although he was cautious about providing a general model of change and preferred to focus on a detailed narrative of developments. He contrasted the degenerate Roman Empire with the vigor of the barbarian invaders. Rather than focusing only on Rome and its successor states, Gibbon extended his scope to a history of Eurasia. He was particularly interested in the displacement of the Greek and Syrian world by the Arabs and Islam. While Gibbon was writing, the banners of the Ottoman Empire still waved above the walls of Belgrade. He sought to understand the past that foreshadowed the modern world and to explain the world of post-Roman power, ecclesiastical authority, and Scholastic philosophy against which eighteenth-century civil society had been constructed.

Gibbon was convinced of the general benefit of history and of modern European civilization:

Since the first discovery of the arts, war, commerce, and religious zeal have diffused among the savages of the Old and New World these inestimable gifts . . . every age of the world has increased and still increases the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue of the human race. The merit of discovery has too often been stained with avarice, cruelty, and fanaticism; and the inter-course of nations has produced the communication of disease and prejudice.

The History was critically and commercially successful, although his critical account of Christianity was attacked by many. Nevertheless, Gibbon's remained the best history of the rise of Christianity in English into the following century.

Gibbon's apparent ambivalence toward Christianity was such that he can scarcely be cited as typifying the values of his age. This was also true of his cosmopolitanism, opposition to war and martial glory, and disapproval of imperial expansion. In his History, Gibbon made his cosmopolitanism clear:

It is the duty of a patriot to prefer and promote the exclusive interest and glory of his native country; but a philosopher may be permitted to enlarge his views, and to consider Europe as one great republic, whose various inhabitants have attained almost the same level of politeness and cultivation.

In later years, Gibbon condemned the French Revolution, which threatened his concept of enlightened Europe and forced him to return home from Lausanne. He never married. The irony of Gibbon's authorial voice was linked to moral and moralistic concerns: rulership, governance, and political life were seen as moral activities. Gibbon's History reflects the scholarship of his age in being essentially a political account, but it is also a great work of literature.

See also Ancient World ; English Literature and Language ; Enlightenment ; Historiography .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Source

Gibbon, Edward. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Edited by J. B. Bury. 7 vols. 2nd ed. London, 1909–1914.

Secondary Sources

Pocock, J. G. A., Barbarism and Religion. Vol. I, The Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon. Cambridge, U.K., 1999.

Porter, Roy. Edward Gibbon: Making History. London, 1988.

Jeremy Black