Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Gibbon and the later Roman Empire: causes and circumstances
- 2 Gibbon and Justinian
- 3 Gibbon and the middle period of the Byzantine Empire
- 4 Byzantine soldiers, missionaries and diplomacy under Gibbon's eyes
- 5 Gibbon and the later Byzantine Empires
- 6 Gibbon and the Merovingians
- 7 Gibbon, Hodgkin, and the invaders of Italy
- 8 Gibbon and the early Middle Ages in eighteenth-century Europe
- 9 Gibbon and the ‘Watchmen of the Holy City’: revision and religion in the Decline and fall
- 10 Gibbon and international relations
- 11 Gibbon's Roman Empire as a universal monarchy: the Decline and fall and the imperial idea in early modern Europe
- 12 The conception of Gibbon's History
- 13 Winston Churchill and Gibbon
- Epilogue
- Index
4 - Byzantine soldiers, missionaries and diplomacy under Gibbon's eyes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Gibbon and the later Roman Empire: causes and circumstances
- 2 Gibbon and Justinian
- 3 Gibbon and the middle period of the Byzantine Empire
- 4 Byzantine soldiers, missionaries and diplomacy under Gibbon's eyes
- 5 Gibbon and the later Byzantine Empires
- 6 Gibbon and the Merovingians
- 7 Gibbon, Hodgkin, and the invaders of Italy
- 8 Gibbon and the early Middle Ages in eighteenth-century Europe
- 9 Gibbon and the ‘Watchmen of the Holy City’: revision and religion in the Decline and fall
- 10 Gibbon and international relations
- 11 Gibbon's Roman Empire as a universal monarchy: the Decline and fall and the imperial idea in early modern Europe
- 12 The conception of Gibbon's History
- 13 Winston Churchill and Gibbon
- Epilogue
- Index
Summary
To devote space to medieval Byzantium must evoke Gibbon's disdain. He professed reluctance to give up many pages of his History to it. The Byzantines laboured under a double despotism, the tyranny of their emperors and the ‘spiritual despotism’ which shackled thoughts as well as deeds: ‘From these considerations, I should have abandoned without regret the Greek slaves and their servile historians, had I not reflected that the fate of the Byzantine monarchy is passively connected with the most splendid and important revolutions, which have changed the state of the world.’ It is in order to illuminate the rise of Islam and the Christian west that Gibbon deigns to cover the history of Byzantium: ‘As, in his daily prayers, the Musulman of Fez or Delhi still turns his face towards the temple of Mecca, the historian's eye shall be always fixed on the city of Constantinople.’
Constantinople thus offers a convenient compass bearing to Gibbon as he charts the development of more dynamic organizations and religious movements. Byzantine historical narratives and prescriptive works are tapped as sources about other peoples. What the Greeks have to say about their own warfare, in theory or practice, serves largely to heighten the contrast between them and the vigorous barbarians. Thus ‘the love of freedom and of arms was felt, with conscious pride, by the Franks themselves, and is observed by the Greeks with some degree of amazement and terror. “The Franks”, says the emperor Constantine, “are bold and valiant to the verge of temerity; and their dauntless spirit is supported by the contempt of danger and death.”’
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- Information
- Edward Gibbon and Empire , pp. 78 - 100Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996