i think that's the one i got. it's well worth it.
― sonderangerbot, Monday, 5 September 2011 13:39 (twelve years ago) link
the only thing that's tempted me to get a Kindle - altho no fucking way until they're a lot cheaper - is availability of large volume 18th and 19th century books free online that are total gits to carry around irl
― Frogbs (Pray Like Aretha Franklin (in Whiteface)) (Noodle Vague), Monday, 5 September 2011 13:42 (twelve years ago) link
such as this!
― Jay-Z ft. Kanye 'Big Hat Club (Spiritual Big Hat Club Jazz Remix)' (a hoy hoy), Monday, 5 September 2011 13:44 (twelve years ago) link
it is def worth it. it's one of the greatest books - all-time top 5 prose style, great narrative, G the best of guides - sceptical, penetrating, humane. One of the great enlightenment books, one of the great histories: actual wisdom therein.
― you don't exist in the database (woof), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:04 (twelve years ago) link
I've been reading it piecemeal since 2010. Not once does the momentum wane.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:17 (twelve years ago) link
glad to hear it. i got "a short introduction to the roman empire" in a 2nd hand shop for a £1 but it was not worth it in anyway. it jumped around and didn't make any narrative sense. otoh i got interested in the romans with dan carlins excellent podcast series 'death throes of the republic' although that was set about 200/300 years before this.
― Jay-Z ft. Kanye 'Big Hat Club (Spiritual Big Hat Club Jazz Remix)' (a hoy hoy), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:21 (twelve years ago) link
it's actually not that great as an intro to Roman history - it starts after all the famous imperial stuff (Caesar Augustus, Claudius, Nero) is over (and assumes its audience knows its way around that iirc); but the title hides the fact that you do get Attila, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, rise of Islam, Crusades etc etc.
― you don't exist in the database (woof), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:34 (twelve years ago) link
u can't rely on all of Gibbon's history tbf, he wrote a long time ago and didn't have the sources available to later historians, never mind advances in archaeology. but one of the amazing things about DaF is how much of his interpretation remains valid and useful.
that said, many modern historians of the Roman Empire don't really hold with a model of decline and fall, or with the notion of outside invaders "destroying" the thing, as i understand it. you can make a good case that the Empire didn't end at all in lots of meaningful ways.
― Frogbs (Pray Like Aretha Franklin (in Whiteface)) (Noodle Vague), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:37 (twelve years ago) link
how big is the gap between the end of 'the twelve caesars' and the start of this
― thomp, Monday, 5 September 2011 14:40 (twelve years ago) link
virtually non iirc
― Frogbs (Pray Like Aretha Franklin (in Whiteface)) (Noodle Vague), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:42 (twelve years ago) link
Domitian is last of 12 Caesars. okay, maybe about 40 or 50 years not really covered in DaF
― Frogbs (Pray Like Aretha Franklin (in Whiteface)) (Noodle Vague), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:43 (twelve years ago) link
the old penguin 'lives of the later caesars' seems to cover the gap. my housemate has borrowed my copy of gibbon, i am going to wait for him to finish it first. this will probably give me enough time to catch up on that and reread suetonius
― thomp, Monday, 5 September 2011 14:47 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, almost none - the set-up chapters sort of cover the nerva-antonine period immediately after the 12 Caesars, though the detailed narrative really kicks in after that.
― you don't exist in the database (woof), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:51 (twelve years ago) link
I don't really mind it not being of great historical value, more that it seemed like a time of great history and characters, if that makes sense?
― Jay-Z ft. Kanye 'Big Hat Club (Spiritual Big Hat Club Jazz Remix)' (a hoy hoy), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:52 (twelve years ago) link
definitely, tho the characters get blurry at times. but don't get me wrong, Gibbon is still v. valuable and influential as history too.
― placeholder for weak pun (Noodle Vague), Monday, 5 September 2011 14:57 (twelve years ago) link
also, gifted anti-christian troll.
― you don't exist in the database (woof), Monday, 5 September 2011 15:15 (twelve years ago) link
downloaded vol 1 free today, started it this morning. The writing is great and the whole thing appeals to my little boy fantasies.
― michael bolton's reckless daughter (Hurting 2), Monday, 15 October 2012 15:30 (eleven years ago) link
wow this sounds great. and you can download it for free? how's the format that that comes in?
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Thursday, 18 October 2012 14:34 (eleven years ago) link
this book is so fucking good it almost depresses me
― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 18 October 2012 16:49 (eleven years ago) link
stop making me want to read it again! i do want to. maybe get a different edition, be a good excuse.
― a pass-agg to indier (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 18 October 2012 16:55 (eleven years ago) link
except it makes you a little sad that Gibbon hasn't written the history of the whole world
the format is fine - got it through ibooks. I've taken to reading on my iphone, which most people find weird, but I like because it's very easy to read on the subway or in bed, and I don't have to carry anything extra.
the writing is fantastic. some of the underlying ideology is kind of o_O but it can be read with a grain of salt. I'm also assuming it's not the most perfectly accurate history ever written and I'm reading it more for the narrative and overall enjoyment.
― michael bolton's reckless daughter (Hurting 2), Thursday, 18 October 2012 16:56 (eleven years ago) link
Like when he just effuses about how pleased all of the subjects were with their roman overlords I assume some exaggeration. Also there's a very anti-populist/elitist bent to some of it.
― michael bolton's reckless daughter (Hurting 2), Thursday, 18 October 2012 16:57 (eleven years ago) link
i've only gotten through a little more than 200 pages of it but it is really really great -- every time i pick it up i pretty much don't want to do anything else but read it. i wish i had a cork-lined room i could retreat to or something.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 18 October 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
the Commodus section shows what a hash Ridley Scott made out of it in Gladiator; reality proved far more gruesome.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 October 2012 18:15 (eleven years ago) link
might have to break my spending freeze to buy this
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Friday, 19 October 2012 09:03 (eleven years ago) link
have any of you guys read the whole thing? i just have that modern library edit, and it's still like 1200 pages.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 19 October 2012 18:43 (eleven years ago) link
i have this disgustingly gorgeous three-volume unabridged hardcover with giant two-page reproductions of the "original etchings" but nah i have not read anywhere close to the whole thing, partly cuz i can't take it anywhere. i think i said on some other thread that it can only be read on a plinth. but the kindle editions i got were pale, pale, pale imitations.
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 19 October 2012 18:46 (eleven years ago) link
Iirc, I petered out in Byzantium around 900 or 1000 AD.
― Aimless, Friday, 19 October 2012 18:46 (eleven years ago) link
(it's from one of my annual holiday-season raids on the bookshelves in my parents' basement, lest anyone think i am not buying ramen w pennies)
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 19 October 2012 18:47 (eleven years ago) link
(also i don't mean to be snotty about the kindle editions, being able to pull any version of gibbon out of the fucking AIR for NOTHING is literally the main thing our civilization has going for it)
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 19 October 2012 18:49 (eleven years ago) link
― Aimless, Friday, October 19, 2012 1:46 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
so did byzantium iirc
― goole, Friday, 19 October 2012 18:59 (eleven years ago) link
I've Storified my (plentiful) tweets on what I found noteworthy in Gibbon: wisdom, humour, elegance, prejudice https://t.co/SODaFPUfZ1— Josh Spero (@joshspero) April 27, 2017
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Saturday, 20 May 2017 18:33 (seven years ago) link
this is the way gibbons intended it to be read
― flopson, Saturday, 20 May 2017 18:52 (seven years ago) link
this is probably the best book ever
― The Remoans of the May (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 20 May 2017 19:17 (seven years ago) link
Yearly reminder to read Gibbon
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 September 2017 20:52 (six years ago) link
― you don't exist in the database (woof), Monday, 5 September 2011 bookmarkflaglink
Is it worth reading Suetonius before starting on this btw?
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 25 May 2020 13:56 (four years ago) link
neither of them are the most accurate things to read as history in 2020, both of them are the best things to read as entertainment, you certainly *could* read Suetonius first but then there's 600-odd years of Roman history before the Caesars so it's still not the whole empire. i think the Decline makes sense on its own, Gibbon sets out his terms at the beginning and in the title.
― Children of Bo-Dom (Noodle Vague), Monday, 25 May 2020 14:02 (four years ago) link
Got it, Ty.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 25 May 2020 14:03 (four years ago) link
Iggy Pop on Gibbon’s Decline and Fall is the most poignant thing I’ve read all week. https://t.co/jksAqwnpAQ pic.twitter.com/sG5aW5gN9h— Mary Harrington (@moveincircles) January 3, 2021
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 January 2021 11:28 (three years ago) link
I've seen that before but it is great
― Uptown Top Scamping (Noodle Vague), Monday, 4 January 2021 13:18 (three years ago) link
"I feel less tyrannized by the present day"
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 4 January 2021 17:43 (three years ago) link
Iggy's frequenting the bookstore at which I worked in the early '90s was a delight.
― Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 January 2021 17:45 (three years ago) link
Ha, was wondering when that was going to get mentioned.
― Dog Heavy Manners (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 4 January 2021 17:47 (three years ago) link
did he ever come into the bookstore shirtless?
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:20 (three years ago) link
Barefoot.
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 January 2021 03:19 (three years ago) link