The Empire unpossess'd
Subtitle: an essay on Gibbon's Decline and fall
By: Lionel Gossman. --
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; Brand: Cambridge University Press
Published: May 29, 1981
Place of publication: Cambridge ; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 160
Subjects: Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794. History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire; Byzantine Empire -- History; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D
Description: One of a small number of historical texts that have become classics, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire demands and deserves the kind of attention readers habitually grant to the classics of fictional literature. In Lionel Gossman's thematic and rhetorical study of Gibbon's masterpiece, the foundation of authority is seen as the historian's chief concern. The central problem of the work - the foundation of political authority - also appears in another form, Gossman contends, as a central problem of the work - that of the authority of the historical text itself.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

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