Required Daily (from last unit): Summarize and Compare Gibbon to Toynbee on the End of the Roman Empire.

Gibbon explains how the Church and Christianity tied into the fall of the empire. Gibbon states that "if the decline of the Roman empire was hastened by the conversion of Constantine, his victorious religion broke the violence of the fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors".(http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gibbon-fall.html) Gibbons is implying that Rome fell because of Christianity, and because of the new ideas that were rising. It was only a matter of time before the empire met its demise.



Toynbee describes in his writing the rise of the Church and how it came about. Toynbee ultimately believes that Christianity had no effect on the fall of Rome. He thinks this because Rome fell before Christianity had come about and it was before christ was born. Gibbon and him disagree on Rome and how Christianity played a part in its fall. He says, "I think Gibbon's initial error lies in supposing that the ancient civilization of the Graeco-Roman world began to decline in the second century after Christ and that the age of the Antonines was that civilization's highest point." (http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/toynbee.html) Toynbee thinks that Rome had already began its fall in the fifth century B.C. Although, they both agree on the fact the Rome fell from the inside out. Toynbee sees the Roman empire as never really coming to a complete end and Gibbon sees the empire as ending completely.


Citation: Gibbon, Edward. "General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West." Medieval Sourcebook. 17 March 2010. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/gibbon-fall.html.


Toynbee, Arnold. "Christianity and Civilization". 17 March 2010. http://www.myriobiblos.gr/texts/english/toynbee.html.
Image from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Ruins-Rome.jpg