SOURCE: Brownley, Martine Watson. “Gibbon's Narrative Attitudes and Values in the Decline and Fall.” Research Studies 46, no. 3 (September 1978): 172-82.

In the following essay, Watson Brownley argues that Gibbon's narrative voice in the Decline and Fall, noted for its balance and practical approach, expressed the values and traits of the Enlightenment as well as those of the historian himself.

The most important role in the vast drama of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is Edward Gibbon's own part as narrator of the history. To guide the reader from the Age of the Antonines to the fall of Constantinople, Gibbon had to construct an appropriate narrative persona to unify his history.¹ Primarily dedicated to effective narration of fact, he establishes basic narrative authority through firm control of his materials and his expression. However, style and factual exactness alone cannot account for the quality of Gibbon's achievement in...