Gibbon and Toynbee

Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire highlights and explains major points that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. One of the first points he touches upon is that the fall was inevitable; the sheer size and greatness of the empire could not be brought to any higher caliber and the only way to go was down. He goes so far as to say that the Roman Empire reigned for far longer than it should and the decline was long overdue. He also proposed that the division of governmental powers between East and West was a major reason that Rome only partially fell. He says that the institution of Constantinople did not affect the West, rather it helped to preserve the East. Others reasons that Gibbon says contributed to the fall of Rome were the rise of Christianity, the naiveté Rome had towards the amount of enemies it was gaining, and, more specifically, the Barbarians. Gibbon puts forth a variety of very plausible explanations as to why Rome could have met its end.

Another scholar who has opinions pertaining to the fall of the Roman Empire is a man by the name of Arnold Toynbee. He does not agree with what Gibbon had to say on the subject. He stated that the fall actually began in the fifth century before Christ and so they fall could not be related to the rise of Christianity. He spends the majority of his paper disproving the theory of the rise of Christianity contributing to the fall of the Roman Empire. He disputes how any religion could have had any outcome on the civilization's reign. Both of these men have stoked the flame on the ever surviving debate about the Fall of Rome. We may never find complete closure but we can continue to speculate and believe what we want.     

"Arnold Toynbee - Christianity and Civilization." Welcome to MYRIOBIBLOS - The Etext Library of the Church of Greece. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/toynbee.html>.

"File:Arnold Toynbee.jpg -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arnold_Toynbee.jpg>.

"File:Edward Gibbon by Henry Walton Cleaned.jpg -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_Gibbon_by_Henry_Walton_cleaned.jpg>.

"Medieval Sourcebook: Gibbon: The Fall of the Roman Empire." FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gibbon-fall.html>.