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The Triumph of European Civilisation According to the Historian Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon is an 18th-century English historian who published his most iconic work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, from 1776 to 1788.
In his book, Gibbon tried to answer one of the defining questions of his time, and that was why the Roman Empire collapsed.
Gibbon also tries to answer another question that plagued politicians and philosophers not just in his own time and place in the 18th century but also modern people of our time, wondering if Roman civilisation, who were at the pinnacle of their technology, in their time.
Could the same thing happen again to Europe’s civilisation in the age of the Internet, the aeroplane, and atomic energy?
Would our civilisation, which has reached the top of the civilisational hierarchy, eventually descend into a dark age like what befell Europe at the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476 A.D?
It wasn’t until the 19th century that Europe truly started to emerge with an equivalent standard of living and quality of life representative of the Roman Empire during the height of its power during the Pax Romana from 27 A.D. to 180 A.D., during the rule of Rome Five Good Emperor’s Nerva (reigned 96–98 CE), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161), and Marcus Aurelius (161–180).
