The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire {abridged, Naxos}

This audio CD is an excellent abridgement, at least for those among us who are lame dilettantes (like your humble narrator) seeking the flavor of Gibbon's magnum opus without also spending three years reading of your life reading all six volumes. This edition is almost exclusively focused on the collapse of the West, very little is said about the rise of Byzantium and nothing at all about the rise of Islam. Whether or not his speculations about the decline of the Western Empire have held up in the light of subsequent scholarship I am not qualified to judge, but his supposed anti-Christian bias did not really seem all that apparent to me, at least in this edition, though he does seem to go to embarrassing lengths to lionize a Julian the show more Apostate, both in the audio book and apparently in the actual text. show less

Zeer goede schets van de ondeugden van de Romeinse keizers als reden van de ondergang van Rome. Taal is wel zeer verouderd. Ligt niet alleen aan de vertaling en is begrijpelijk gezien de tijdsperiode van de schrijver. Toch vraag ik mij af of een aanpassing van de taal en een meer handzame uitgave niet nuttig zou zijn.