Originally published on August 23, 2021 (Episode 219)
Introduction
Edward Gibbon famously recalled that it was while standing amid the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, listening to the chants of barefooted friars, that he first began to conceive his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He was hardly the first English visitor to be moved by Rome’s ruins; centuries earlier, an Anglo-Saxon traveler composed a haunting poem about the “works of giants decaying.”
But as Edward J. Watts makes clear in his new book The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea, even before later Europeans took up the theme, the Romans themselves were consumed with the notion of their own decline. Again and again, Rome’s citizens and leaders worried that their world was already falling apart—even when it wasn’t.
About the Guest
Edward J. Watts is Professor and Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair in Byzantine Greek History at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of numerous books, including Mortal Republic, and is a returning guest on Historically Thinking.
For Further Investigation
Edward J. Watts, The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea
Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The Ruin” (Anglo-Saxon poem on Rome’s remains—or perhaps about the remains of Bath)
Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization
Kyle Harper, The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire
Listen & Discuss
What lessons do we draw from Rome’s obsession with its own decline? Do we see echoes of those same fears in our world today? Share your thoughts in the comments—and pass this post along to a friend who might enjoy reflecting on the parallels.
