"A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars."
-
-
On reflection several of those phrases are pretty atemporal for Gibbon, who wouldn't have known a class struggle if it turned up on his doorstep with pitchforks and torches. (He has an entertaining cameo in BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON iirc, on which I am basing this claim.)
-
CAPTAIN Gibbon would surely have understood class struggle, having trained to possibly bear arms and command men in one. He just wouldn’t have known of the phrase.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

