Gibbon's Epic Roman History Marks 250th Anniversary

What Happened Edward Gibbon, a Whig MP for Liskeard and essayist, published the first volume of his monumental historical work in 1776. The complete six-volume series, finished in 1788, traced the Roman Empire’s story from Emperor Trajan’s accession in AD 98 through the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453—spanning over 1,350 years of history. The timing was remarkable: Gibbon began his masterpiece during the American Revolution and completed it just before the French Revolution erupted in 1789, making it a product of an era defined by political upheaval and the questioning of established power.