Read it here, here or here.

1) Good quotes

Actually not that many in this chapter, which is full of incident rather than rhetoric. But here is Gibbon on the idea that Constantine's mother was a British princess: This tradition, unknown to the contemporaries of Constantine, was invented in the darkness of monasteries, was embellished by Jeffrey of ( Read more... )

Read it here, here or here. I have invested in the first of the three-volume Penguin complete Decline and Fall, which was pretty inexpensive second-hand from *m*z*n and has a decent list also of changes between the various editions.

0) Normal service resumedThis time last week, I was at a conference on Tudor Ireland in Connecticut; the Saturday ( Read more... )

Read it here, here and here.

1) Good quotes

The juicy bits are all from the reign of Elagabalus: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 rarest aromatics, were profusely ( Read more... )

Available here, here or here.

1) Good quotes

After an introductory couple of paras about Commodus' father and mother, Gibbon moves from historical scene-setting to moral scene-setting: Most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of society, are produced by the restraints which the necessary but unequal laws of property have imposed on ( Read more... )