The throne of the persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of Christian and orthodox princes, who had extirpated the fabulous gods of antiquity: and the public devotion of the age was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic church, on the altars of Diana and Hercules. It’s a period of fracture and friction as the Roman imperium begins to buckle under the pressures placed upon it.Įarly on, Gibbon provides us with a convenient summary of the situation that had developed from about the reign of Decius (c.250) until the reign of Theodosius, which is worth reproducing here:ĭuring this period, the seat of government had been transported from Rome to a new city on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus and the abuse of military spirit had been suppressed by an artificial system of tame and ceremonious servitude. Goths, Huns, and Vandals are our unruly guests as we settle down once again with Gibbon, who in this volume concentrates on the period from the ascent of Theodosius to the imperial throne in 379 to the sack of Rome by the Vandals in 455. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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