We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
… for you must know, that next to new-invented characters, we are fond of new lights upon ancient characters; I mean such lights as shew a reputed honest man to have been a concealed knave; an illustrious hero a pitiful coward, &c. …
LytteltonCet empereur élevé jusqu' aux nues par les ennemies du nom chrétien, a mérité que de nos jours un auteur célebre prit la peine d'écrire son histoire, & s'efforçat de rectifier le jugement qu' on devoit en porter.
ChastelluxThe way in which Gibbon's allegiance to the philosophe assumptions with which he had begun The Decline and Fall is shaken, and the consequences of that disturbance, are shown with great clarity in his handling of Julian the Apostate.
Julian's most recent historian has found that it is possible only to ‘grope towards the facts about the man and his reign’. Michel Baridon has argued that Gibbon did not share this tentativeness. While acknowledging that his portrait of Julian is not a simple panegyric – after all, the historian himself speaks of ‘my impartial balance of the virtues and vices of Julian’ – Baridon suggests that The Decline and Fall astutely blends criticism of Julian with praise in order to confuse those who, aware of Gibbon's aversion to Christianity, expected him to make a hero of the Apostate.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
