Book detail: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
This seminal work provides an in-depth exploration of the political, social, and economic factors that contributed to the fall of one of the greatest empires in history.
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“The fabric of a mighty state, which has been reared by the labours of successive ages, could not be overturned by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal power of the imagination did not exaggerate the real measure of the calamity.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a long interval of forty years, the faith of the princes and prelates who reigned in the capital of the East was rejected in the purer schools of Rome and Alexandria.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The complaints of contemporary writes, who deplore the increase of luxury and deprevation of manners, are commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and situation. There are few observers who possess a clear and comprehensive view of the revolutions of society, and who are capable of discovering the nice and secret springs of action which impel, in the same uniform direction, the bland and capricious passions of a multitude of individuals.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“A people who still remembered that their ancestors had been the masters of the world would have applauded, with conscious pride, the representation of ancient freedom, if they had not long since been accustomed to prefer the solid assurance of bread to the unsubstantial visions of liberty and greatness.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The ancients were destitute of many of the conveniences of life which have been invented or improved by the progress of industry; and the plenty of glass and linen has diffused more real comforts among the modern nations of Europe than the senators of Rome could derive from all the refinements of pompous or sensual luxury.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“In populous cities, which are the seat of commerce and manufactures, the middle ranks of inhabitants, who derive their subsistence from the dexterity or labour of their hands, are commonly the most prolific, the most useful, and, in that sense, the most respectable part of the community.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The brutal soldiers satisfied their sensual appetites without consulting either the inclination or the duties of their female captives; and a nice question of casuistry was seriously agitated, Whether those tender victims, who had inflexibly refused their consent to the violation which they sustained, had lost, by their misfortune, the glorious crown of virginity. There were other losses indeed of a more substantial kind and more general concern.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“In less than seven years the vestiges of the Gothic invasion were almost obliterated, and the city appeared to resume its former splendour and tranquillity. The venerable matron replaced her crown of laurel, which had been ruffled by the storms of war, and was still amused in the last moment of her decay with the prophecies of revenge, of victory, and of eternal dominion.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burthens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord; nor can it reasonably be presumed that the restoration of British freedom was exempt from tumult and faction. The pre-eminence of birth and fortune must have been frequently violated by bold and popular citizens; and the haughty nobles, who complained that they were become the subjects of their own servants, would sometimes regret the reign of an arbitrary monarch.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The pastoral labours of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked and gradually united against him two sorts of enemies; the aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate sinners, who were offended by his reproofs. When Chrysostom thundered from the pulpit of St. Sophia against the degeneracy of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without wounding or even marking the character of any individual.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Such events may be disbelieved or disregarded; but the charity of a bishop, Acacius of Amida, whose name might have dignified the saintly calendar, shall not be lost in oblivion.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The union of the Roman empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the North, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The laws of war, that restrain the exercise of national rapine and murder, are founded on two principles of substantial interest: the knowledge of the permanent benefits which may be obtained by a moderate use of conquest, and a just apprehension lest the desolation which we inflict on the enemy's country may be retaliated on our own. But these considerations of hope and fear are almost unknown in the pastoral state of nations.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“If we are more affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The ruin of Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular superstition; and may therefore deserve to be considered, as a singular event in the history of the human mind.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Suspicious princes often promote the last of mankind, from a vain persuasion that those who have no dependence except on their favor will have no attachment except to the person of their benefactor.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“So natural to man is the practice of violence that our indulgence allows the slightest provocation, the most disputable right, as a sufficient ground of national hostility.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss of strength and blood . . .”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Our toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals . . .”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The Gauls derided the hairy and gigantic savages of the North; their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their horrid appearance, equally disgusting to the sight and to the smell.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The spectator and historian of [Belisarius's] exploits has observed, that amidst the perils of war, he was daring without rashness, prudent without fear, slow or rapid according to the exigencies of the moment; that in the deepest distress he was animated by real or apparent hope, but that he was modest and humble in the most prosperous fortune.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Yet the experience of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes, and diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to what height the human species may aspire in their advances towards perfection; but it may safely be presumed, that no people, unless the face of nature is changed, will relapse into their original barbarism.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“[The] penalty of death was abolished in the Roman empire, a law of mercy most delightful to the humane theorist, but of which the practice, in a large and vicious community, is seldom consistent with the public safety.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The dark cloud, which had been cleared by the Phoenician discoveries, and finally dispelled by the arms of Caesar, again settled on the shores of the Atlantic, and a Roman province [Britain] was again lost among the fabulous Islands of the Ocean.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Genius may anticipate the season of maturity; but in the education of a people, as in that of an individual, memory must be exercised, before the powers of reason and fancy can be expanded: nor may the artist hope to equal or surpass, till he has learned to imitate, the works of his predecessors.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“An extensive empire must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression; in the centre, an absolute power, prompt in action and rich in resources; a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts; fortifications to check the first effort of rebellion; a regular administration to protect and punish; and a well-disciplined army to inspire fear, without provoking discontent and despair.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities, which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The land was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his dominion over the earth.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Europe is secure from any future irruptions of Barbarians; since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Flattery is a foolish suicide; she destroys herself with her own hands.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The Gauls were endowed with all the advantages of art and nature; but as they wanted courage to defend them, they were justly condemned to obey, and even to flatter, the victorious Barbarians, by whose clemency they held their precarious fortunes and their lives.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“But the desire of obtaining the advantages, and of escaping the burdens, of political society, is a perpetual and inexhaustible source of discord.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Boethius might have been styled happy, if that precarious epithet could be safely applied before the last term of the life of man.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“From the paths of blood (and such is the history of nations) I cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or virtue.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“[We should] suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“It is impossible to reduce, or, at least, to hold a distant country against the wishes and efforts of its inhabitants.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“[The Goths'] poverty was incurable; since the most liberal donatives were soon dissipated in wasteful luxury, and the most fertile estates became barren in their hands.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Greek is a musical and prolific language, that gives a soul to the objects of sense, and a body to the abstractions of philosophy.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“[It] is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The science of the laws is the slow growth of time and experience.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“[The] discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny . . .”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“But a law, however venerable be the sanction, cannot suddenly transform the temper of the times . . .”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“[But] the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his children and his property, has lost in society the first and most active energies of nature.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“In the most rigorous [Roman] laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the executioner.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Women [in ancient Rome] were condemned to the perpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, or guardians; a sex created to please and obey was never supposed to have attained the age of reason and experience. Such, at least, was the stern and haughty spirit of the ancient law . . .”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The peace of the Eastern church was invaded by a swarm of fanatics [monks], incapable of fear, or reason, or humanity; and the Imperial troops acknowledged, without shame, that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the fiercest Barbarians.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The monastic studies have tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of superstition.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire