Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire Analysis

We recognize in the construction of the work „Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire“, that Edward Gibbon, in the first works a total period of 460 years. He begins in 180 AD and ends in 641 AD. Here we see, that the author is largely concerned on the time especially during and after the fall of Rome. In the chapters four to seven he deals with the successors of Marcus Antoninus, namely Septimius Severus, Severus Alexander and Maximinus I. The organization of these four chapters emphasizes the structural conformity of the treated emperors, less in the similarity of their policies than in the comparability of the political problems of the time. To Gibbon it was clear that, despite apparent differences, the Roman policy of that era was fraught with the Romans

Once again, it can be seen, that this explanatory approach was drawn from Montesquieu's model, which encouraged Gibbon to speculate about sociological and political-scientific contexts. Nevertheless, his style in this chapter remains narrative and even if he makes excurses on the topics mentioned, he returns to his focus. He illuminates the named characters, by individual, which means they begin with an exposition, after which the character of each emperor and his rivals is presented. This is followed by a description of the most important events, an evaluation of the Emperor and of his opponents, which is rounded off by a final assessment. The consequence of this narrative perspective can be assumed that the narration has accelerated, and it may appear, that the empire has been leaded in a rapid change of rulers into the chaos. So, we get fifteen emperors until the fall of Rome. In the end, this led to the dissolution of the Roman Empire, and the senate decided that the imperial dignity would no longer be awarded in Rome, but only in