from gibbon to auden essays on the classical tradition mar 2009

[...]... times at the dramatic power of Gibbon s exposition In 1871 they contemplate a Gibbonian tragedy on Julian the Apostate, and in the next year they admire the conflict of power and character represented by the confrontation of Ambrose and Theodosius Although the Wagners had a lively appreciation of Gibbon s English style because they read his work in the original and contrasted it favorably to Carlyle’s,... that Gibbon was the better historian Elsewhere in nineteenth-century Germany, two other highly cultivated but otherwise very different people were reading Gibbon with equal appreciation The diaries of Richard Wagner’s wife Cosima show that the two of them read Gibbon to one another off and on in the evenings from 1869 to 1876 They always read Gibbon with pleasure, according to Cosima’s notes, and marveled... and the author of the second Roman revolution But Gibbon enhances the dramatic contrast between Augustus and Constantine by emphasizing the rise of the first emperor from tyranny to the fatherhood of humankind and the descent of the founder of Constantinople from heroism to cruelty and dissolution It obviously served Gibbon s view of the influence and effects of Christianity to observe dissolution after... recognizably continental perspective (and undoubtedly an eye on Montesquieu), The other nations of Europe had outstripped the English in the progress of history England possessed poets and philosophers, but she was reproached with having only cold annalists and impassioned declaimers.” But Gibbon then goes on to mention two exceptions, and these are the two exceptions that continued to provide contemporary... is the eternal difference between fiction and truth.” Yet Gibbon shaped his truth as if it were fiction, preserving thereby the animation of human history and the art of the novelist In this sense Gibbon could describe himself in the Vindication as a Manufacturer GIBBON S HISTORICAL IMAGINATION • 13 For Gibbon, the manufacturing process not only included discarding boring material, such as much of the. ..This page intentionally left blank contents Pa r t I The Eighteenth Century Chapter 1 Gibbon s Historical Imagination [3] C ha p t e r 2 Gibbon on Civil War and Rebellion in the Decline of the Roman Empire [20] C ha p t e r 3 Reflections on Gibbon s Library [33] C ha p t e r 4 Watchmen: Gibbon s Autobiographies [43] Chapter 5 Suetonius in the Eighteenth Century [52] Chapter 6 The Rediscovery of Herculaneum... description of Poggio sitting on the Capitol amid the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter at the beginning of the final chapter of the Decline and Fall is artfully paired with Gibbon s description of himself sitting amid the ruins of the Capitol at the fateful moment in which he is supposed to have conceived the idea of writing the history In fact, in the description of that memorable moment in the various... the Vindication in the first place Davis’s attack was a genuine threat to the integrity of Gibbon s work The section on plagiarisms, which runs to dozens of pages, is the most damaging, and yet it is that section to which Gibbon devotes the least space in his reply Under the rubric of plagiarisms Gibbon simply tells his readers that he should be congratulated for choosing to rely upon the most reputable... scatter flowers on the thorns of knowledge is the plan of the wit who seeks only to amuse himself To unite the useful and the agreeable is all the most demanding reader can ask: let him ask it of M de la Bléterie without fear.” This view of history, which is the engine that set his strong imagination in motion, remained with Gibbon throughout his life In the introductory remarks to the first of the final two... declares, The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, oppose equal difficulties to this historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration.” Yet the period is a pivotal one in the transition from Roman Empire to the early Byzantine age, and Gibbon s problem has been acutely felt by all historians who have followed him, The first edition of the Cambridge . class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" FROM GIBBON TO AUDEN This page intentionally left blank FROM GIBBON TO AUDEN Essays on the Classical Tradition G. W. Bowersock 1 2009 1 Oxford University Press,. appreciation. The diaries of Richard Wagner’s wife Cosima show that the two of them read Gibbon to one another off and on in the evenings from 1869 to 1876. They always read Gibbon with pleasure,. contents Part I The Eighteenth Century Chapter 1 Gibbon s Historical Imagination [3] Chapter 2 Gibbon on Civil War and Rebellion in the Decline of the Roman Empire [20] Chapter 3 Refl ections on Gibbon s