This lecture is part of a course from The Great Courses called Books That Matter: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire taught by Professor Leo Damrosch, Ph.D.. This course and over 300 other courses can be accessed with a subscription to Wondrium.
This free Great Courses lecture is part of the Books that Matter series, focusing this time on Edward Gibbon’s landmark The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In this lecture Harvard Professor Leo Damrosch discusses the Eastern invaders that finally broke Roman dominance, and in the process became major contributors to what would become Modern Europe. The chapters covered here include a brief biographical sketch of Attila the Hun and his leadership qualities, the sack of Rome by the Vandals, an interesting note on the last Roman Emperor, a look at Gibbon’s distaste for Monastic isolation, and much more. This is a great taste of the sheer breadth of Professor Damrosch’s genius as a literary scholar, and his ability to weave commentary on Gibbon’s life in with an expert analysis of the historical period covered.