In this chapter, Timour / Tamerlane leads a Central Asian army to victory in Persia, Georgia, Tartary, Russia, India, Syria, and Anatolia, capturing the Ottoman sultan Bajazet (Bayezid I). But his conquests disintegrate when he dies, and the Ottoman Turks rebuild their realm and besiege Constantinople (on this occasion, unsuccessfully). See also ( Read more... )

In this chapter, the Mongols (or as Gibbon interchangeably calls them, the Moguls/Tartars) rise from Central Asia and make vast conquests to the north, south, east and west. But after the reign of Zingis/Genghis, the Turkes return as the main threat to the Byzantine empire. See also my notes on the global economic system, the Seven Churches of Asia ( Read more... )

Attila and the Huns continue to ravage both halves of the Empire, particularly Italy. Eventually Attila dies in the process of getting intimate with the latest of his many wives.

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  reading_gibbon: Gibbon's Vindication
  "It is not without some mixture of mortification and regret, that I now look back on the number of hours which I have consumed, and the number of pages which I have filled, in vindicating my literary and moral character from the charge of wilful Misrepresentations, gross Errors, and servile ( Read more... )

My 2009 reading ended on a high note, with Edward Gibbon's short and entertaining autobiography, telling the story of his life and of how he wrote the Decline and Fall.

(Incidentally I shall be writing up the most controversial chapters, XV and XVI, on early Christianity on reading_gibbon tomorrow and next week. You can sample them here and here - they feature ( Read more... )

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  Reading Gibbon's "Decline and Fall" - Chapter X, which is mostly about the Goths
  
  Almost entirely about the barbarians - mainly the Goths - with the deadly succession of shortlived emperors mere background detail. And this seems right - the real story is not the politics of the Empire's leadership, but the story of how the empire ( Read more... )

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  reading_gibbon: Chapter VIII: Of the state of Persia after the restoration of the monarchy by Artaxerxes
  there are some remarkable instances, in which Zoroaster lays aside the prophet, assumes the legislator, and discovers a liberal concern for private and public happiness, seldom to be found among the grovelling or visionary schemes ( Read more... )

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  reading_gibbon: Chapter VI: Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus; and taxation
  In a magnificent temple raised on the Palatine Mount, the sacrifices of the god of Elagabalus were celebrated with every circumstance of cost and solemnity. The richest wines, the most extraordinary victims, and the ( Read more... )

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  reading_gibbon: Chapter V, which is mostly about Septimius Severus
  After Pertinax is murdered, the Prætorian Guards auction the empire to the highest bidder, one Didius Julianus. His rule is contested by Clodius Albinus in Britain, Septimius Severus in Pannonia, and Pescennius Niger in Syria. Septimius Severus outwits and kills the ( Read more... )

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  Chapter IV: The cruelty, follies and murder of Commodus [with added Pertinax]
  This chapter is about 70% Commodus and 30% Pertinax; the former reigned for 13 years and the latter less than three months. Though from what Gibbon says, Pertinax is much the more attractive of the two as characters. A lot about Commodus himself, but it is ( Read more... )