Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the supreme achievement of Enlightenment historiography — six volumes tracing the Roman Empire from its second-century zenith through the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Volume 1, covering the age of the Antonines to Constantine, sets out Gibbon’s magisterial interpretation of Roman decline, his provocative account of Christianity’s role in that process, and the prose style that has made this one of the great works of English literature.
This free EPUB of Volume 1 is impeccably formatted for e-readers. No serious reader of ancient and medieval history can afford to neglect Gibbon; this volume is where to begin.