Slides from a lecture given on the World of Late Antiquity module at the University of Warwick in April 2012.

1. Dr Jamie Wood
University of Manchester

2.  Introduce you to Edward Gibbon, a foundational
thinker on the end of the Roman Empire
 Think about the impact of Gibbon’s work
 Start to prepare for the revision session in two
weeks
 Consider how later historians modified,
developed and rejected Gibbon’s ideas about
the end of the Roman Empire
 Provide an overview of modern scholarship on
the end of the Roman Empire

3.  Political
 Empire
 Absolutism vs. democracy
and reform
 Revolution
 Formation of nations
 Intellectual
 Enlightenment
▪ Rationalism over religion
▪ Science
▪ History as science – historicism
in 19th C

4.  Wealthy family
 Educated in London and Oxford
 Passion for theological controversy
 Conversion to Catholicism and back to
Protestantism
 5 years studying in Lausanne
 Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature (1761):
literary celebrity
 Service in the South Hampshire militia
 1762: commences Grand Tour, including
travel to Rome, where he says idea for the
Decline and Fall took root
 1773: appointed honorary 'professor in
ancient history' at the Royal Academy
 1774: MP for Liskeard, Cornwall
 1776-1788: publication of the Decline and Fall
in 6 volumes

5.  “...at the distance of twenty-five years I can
neither forget nor express the strong emotions
which agitated my mind as I first approached
and entered the eternal City. After a sleepless
night, I trod, with a lofty step the ruins of the
Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus
stood, or Tully spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once
present to my eye; and several days of
intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could
descend to a cool and minute investigation.”

6.  The volumes were a commercial and literary
success
 Negative appraisals:
 Strongly criticised for its view of Christianity
(chapters 15-16 banned in several countries)
 Accused on anti-Semitism
 Negative view of middle ages: “I have described
the triumph of barbarism and religion.” (3.71)
 Rejection of contemporary democratic
movements
 Positive appraisals:
 Praised for its style (e.g. by Winston Churchill)
and ideas (Isaac Asimov)
 Emphasised importance of primary sources
rather than secondary accounts (first modern
historian?)

7.  Read the extracts from Gibbon’s Decline and
Fall that I have provided
 In pairs discuss the following questions:
 What does Gibbon say were the key factors in the
success of early Christianity?
 What reasons does he give for the failure of
paganism/ polytheism to resist Christianity?
 Why were people attracted to Christianity,
according to Gibbon?

8.  Internal factors are pre-
eminent
 Factors built in to the
imperial system
 the role of the army
 the role of the emperor
 Christianity weakens the
Roman spirit
 monks rather than
legionaries
 The barbarians defeat an
already-decrepit system

9.  In pairs, spend a bit of time discussing
the homework reading by Bowersock
 Between you, decide on 3 key points that
you think Bowersock is trying to make
 Get ready to present them back to the
rest of the class
 You have 8 minutes

10.  Spend a couple of minutes thinking about what
you’d like to do in the revision class in two weeks.
 Think about both content you’d like to cover and
how you’d like to cover it (= process)
 Are there any gaps that you’d like to see filled?
 Do you have any concerns about the format of the
exam?
 Which topics have you particularly enjoyed and would
like to focus on?
 Is there anything we can learn from other revision
classes that you’ve had in the past?

11.  Over the next few slides we’ll be working through the
historians that I asked you to look at for homework
▪ J.B. Bury
▪ Henri Pirenne
▪ Arnaldo Momigliano
▪ G.E.M. de Ste. Croix
▪ Peter Brown
 Spend 5 minutes (either on your own or with someone
who researched the same historian)
 Think of about 5 key points relating to your historian’s
views on the end of the Roman Empire
 Get ready to feed them back to the rest of the class
 I will summarise your points on the PowerPoint

17.  Toronto and Vienna Schools (Goffart and Pohl)
 Degree of continuity in personnel
 Was there a migration?
 Is there more continuity with the Roman period than allowed?
 Who writes the histories and what can they tell us?
 Archaeological perspectives (e.g. Ward-Perkins)
 Decline in material conditions is discernable and measurable;
 But: Is this the right question to ask? What about the Islamic-
Byzantine worlds?
 Migration is important (e.g. Heather; response by Halsall)
 Transformations of the Roman World
 EU-funded project; the origins of Europe and European nations…
 What about the medieval world? Should we be viewing it
from the perspective of what was lost with fall of Rome?

18.  Is Gibbon’s model still useful for thinking about the
end of the Roman Empire?
 Why? What might it help us to do?
 Can we identify common themes in these analyses
of the end of the Roman Empire?

19.  Context of interpretation is extremely important
 Modern concern for multiculturalism/ migration
 Cf. Gibbon’s Enlightenment concerns (e.g. anti-religion)
 Nationalism was important in 19th/early 20th Cs
 Europeanism in the late 20th C
 Sources/methodologies/ theories that are privileged are also vital
 Interest in certain kinds of evidence allows certain kinds of
interpretations
 Methodologies (i.e. ways that you engage with your sources; e.g.
textual analysis; social history; political history)
 Theories that underpin interpretations (e.g. Marxism)
 Direction of viewpoint will alter perspective and therefore
interpretation:
 From perspective of the high empire or from the medieval kingdoms?
Or from Byzantium/ Islamic world or W. Europe?

20.  Read the following article, which summarises
some (relatively) recent work on the fall of Rome
and the barbarian invasions:
 Guy Halsall (1999), ‘Review article: Movers and
Shakers: the Barbarians and the Fall of Rome’, Early
Medieval Europe 8.1, pp. 131-145
 Email me (jamie.wood@manchester.ac.uk) if
you have any concerns or ideas for the revision
session
 Optional: watch Visiting Scholar Michael
McCormick on "Climate Change and the Fall of the
Roman Empire” (YouTube, 2011)