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THE

HISTORY

OF THE

DECLINE AND FALL

OF THE

ROMAN EMPIRE.

BY EDWARD GIBBON, Esq.

IN TWELVE VOLUMES.

VOL. VII.

A NEW EDITION.

EDINBURGH:

FRINTED FOR BELL AND BRADFUTE, PETER HILL, SILVESTER DOIG
AND A. STIRLING, AND JOHN OGLE.

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PREFACE.

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Now discharge my promise, and complete my design of writing the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, both in the West and the East. The whole period extends from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, to the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II; and includes a review of the crusades and the state of Rome during the middle ages. Since the publication of the first* volume, twelve years have elapsed; twelve years, according to my wish, "of health, of lei

66

sure, and of perseverance." I may now congratulate my deliverance from a long and laborious service, and my satisfaction will be pure and perfect, if the public favour should be extended to the conclusion of my work.

Alluding to the Quarto Edition, in which size the Work was originally published.

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It was my first intention to have collected, under one view, the numerous authors, of every age and language, from whom I have derived the materials of this history; and I am still convinced that the apparent ostentation would be more than compensated by real use. If I have renounced this idea; if I have declined an undertaking which had obtained the approbation of a master-artist,* my excuse may be found in the extreme difficulty of assigning a proper measure to such a catalogue. A naked list of names and editions would not be satisfactory either to myself or my readers; the characters of the principal Authors of the Roman and Byzantine History have been occasionally connected with the events which they describe; a more copious and critical inquiry might indeed deserve, but it would demand, an elaborate volume, which might swell by degrees into a general library of historical writers. For the present I shall content myself with renewing my serious protestation, that I have always endea

See Dr. Robertson's Preface to his History of America.

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