The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 2Harper & brothers, 1843 |
Contents
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Common terms and phrases
Africa Alaric Alemanni Ambrose Ammianus ancient Antioch appeared Arcadius Arian arms army arts Attila Barbarians bishop camp cavalry celebrated character Christian church civil Claudian command conqueror Constantine Constantinople court danger Danube death declared deserved diligence disgrace domestic East Eccles ecclesiastical emperor empire enemy epist Eunapius faith father favour favourite fortune Fritigern Gaul Gothic Goths Gratian Greek Gregory guilt Hist historian Honorius honourable hundred Huns Idatius impatient Imperial Italy Jerom Jornandes Jovian Julian king labour laws Libanius Maximus merit Milan miles military ministers monarch nation oppressed Orat Orosius Pagans palace passions peace perhaps Persian person præfect prince Procopius provinces rank Ravenna reign religion republic revenge Roman Rome royal Rufinus Scythia secret senate soldiers soon sovereign Sozomen spirit Stilicho subjects success temper Theodoret Theodosius thousand throne Tillemont treaty tribes troops tyrant Valens Valentinian valour Vandals victory virtue Visigoths youth zeal Zosimus
Popular passages
Page 445 - Europe is secure from any future irruptions of Barbarians; since, before they can conquer, they must cease to be barbarous. Their gradual advances in the science of war would always be accompanied, as we may learn from the example of Russia, with a proportionable improvement in the arts of peace and civil policy; and they themselves must deserve a place among the polished nations whom they subdue.
Page 442 - ... principle of decay ; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest ; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious ; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.
Page 57 - The face of the country was interspersed with groves of innumerable palm-trees, and the diligent natives celebrated, either in verse or prose, the three hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit were skilfully applied.
Page 262 - The sideboards of massy plate, and the variegated wardrobes of silk and purple, were irregularly piled in the wagons that always followed the march of a Gothic army. The most exquisite works of art were roughly handled or wantonly destroyed; many a statue was melted for the sake of the precious materials; and many a vase, in the division of the spoil, was shivered into fragments by the stroke of a battle-axe.
Page 442 - The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire, may deserve, as a singular prodigy, the reflection of a philosophic mind. But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay ; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest ; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weieht.
Page 316 - The haughty step and demeanor of the king of the Huns expressed the consciousness of his superiority above the rest of mankind ; and he had a custom of fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he wished to enjoy the terror which he inspired.
Page 314 - But, if the interval between two memorable eras could be instantly annihilated ; if it were possible, after a momentary slumber of two hundred years, to display the new world to the eyes of a spectator, who still retained a lively and recent impression of the old ; his surprise and his reflections would furnish the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance.
Page 265 - At the head of an army encumbered with rich and weighty spoils, their intrepid leader advanced along the Appian way into the southern provinces of Italy, destroying whatever dared to oppose his passage, and contenting himself with the plunder of the unresisting country.
Page 445 - His progress in the improvement and exercise of his mental and corporeal faculties has been irregular and various; infinitely slow in the beginning, and increasing by degrees with redoubled velocity: ages of laborious ascent have been followed by a moment of rapid downfall; and the several climates of the globe have felt the vicissitudes of light and darkness. Yet the experience of four thousand years should enlarge our hopes and diminish our apprehensions: we cannot determine to what height the...
Page 442 - Carthage, has accurately described their military system; their levies, arms, exercises, subordination, marches, encampments; and the invincible legion, superior in active strength to the Macedonian phalanx of Philip and Alexander. From these institutions of peace and war Polybius has deduced the spirit and success of a people incapable of fear and impatient of repose.