Excerpt from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1 The notes are partly derived from former commentators, and are partly composed by the present editor. The former class of notes is taken from the annotated edition of Dean Milman, who, in addition to his own remarks, has given those of M. Guizot and M. Wenck, appended to the French and German translations respectively. In using the valuable ma terials thus placed at his disposal by the kindness of Dean Milman, the editor has adhered to the principles mentioned above, and has therefore omitted several notes which seemed to him superfluous. But, while he has exercised an indepen dent judgment in adopting or rejecting the labors of his predecessors, he desires to acknowledge the great obligations he is under to Dean Milman, whose notes have received the approbation of the most competent scholars, and who has in many parts of the work added everything necessary to cor rect the errors or supply the deficiencies of the text. This is more especially the case in the chapters relating to Chris tianity, upon which the editor has abstained from making any remarks, believing that the criticisms of so distinguished a divine as Dean Milman would be more valuable and satis factory than any which could be offered by a layman whose studies have lain in another direction. In addition to the assistance derived from former oommen tators, the editor has much pleasure in acknowledging his obligations to his friend Mr. Layard, who has supplied him with valuable information upon the portions of Gibbon's work relating to the geography and history of the East. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.