Please note: This is Volume 4 only.

The pre-eminent historian of his day, Edward Gibbon (1737–94) produced his magnum opus in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. Reissued here is the authoritative seven-volume edition prepared by J. B. Bury (1861–1927) between 1896 and 1900. Immediately and widely acclaimed, Gibbon's work remains justly famous for its magisterial account of Roman imperialism and Christianity from the first century CE through to the fall of Constantinople and beyond. Innovative in its use of primary sources and notable for its tone of religious scepticism, this epic narrative stands as a masterpiece of English literature and historical scholarship. Volume 4 focuses on the fifth and sixth centuries CE, examining the Vandal sack of Rome and the fall of the Western Empire, the conversion of barbarians to Christianity, the Saxon conquest of Britain, and the wars of the Goths and the Vandals.

Table of Contents

36. Sack of Rome by Genseric, king of the Vandals; 37. Origin, progress, and effects of the monastic life; 38. Reign and conversion of Clovis; 39. Zeno and Anastasius, emperors of the east; 40. Elevation of Justin the Elder; 41. Conquests of Justinian in the west; 42. State of the barbaric world; 43. Rebellions of Africa; 44. Idea of the Roman jurisprudence.