The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1

This book covers not just battles and kings, but culture, religion and reasons for conflict. The author uses primary sources and is a 19th century "age of reason" Englishman. This means he is a bit condescending to women and thinks constitutional monarchy is the best guaranter of freedom, but aside from that he is astonishingly fair and balanced about his treatment of the diverse religions and cultures of Romans, Byzantines, Germanic and Steppes tribes, Franks and Germans, Arab Moslems, Turkish Moslems, North Africans (pre and post Moslem) and of all the flavors of religion from Pagan to Jew to zillions of Christian flavors to Moslem that interacted between the time of Augustus and 17th century.

He has a kind of dry humor and sarcasm that he applies to everything equally. He's consistent about the virtues he admires or the faults he deplores regardless of religion or culture. This series also has the most objective view of the Crusades I've ever read.

At about $1 per hour of listening it is a tremendous value if you are at all interested in the history of the western world from about the birth of Christ and the origins of a lot of the current problems in the Middle East.

The book is great. But I couldn't get through it. The narrator whistles on his S's and it became unbearable. There were times my shoulders popped up to my ears as I tried to follow sentences like "some soldiers in the service of Caesar were sent to Sicily...." OUCH lol. I'll just have to read this one the old fashion way.

This is my first audible book and audiobook experience and what a great introduction to the medium.

The Emperor Julian the Apostate: the last non-Christian of the Roman Empire. An outstanding general, scholar and philosopher.

No. He is a wonderful narrator.

yes

Many hours but so worthwhile. The Decline and Fall made many a weekly drive from Cape Cod to New York City something to look forward to and not dread.

Very long and detailed, but well narrated. You do have to focus and pay attention, otherwise you'll lose track. Only issue is he tends to skip around a bit, so sometimes it's difficult to tell which emperor or time period he is talking about. Excellent thesis on early Christianity.

This is going to take some time. -- The recording is old-school, and the narrator is very British and I found his voice soothing and calming. This helped me relax, but I couldn't remember what I was learning. If you want an audio recording of this book, it isn't bad, but I couldn't use it to pass time while driving. It made me sleepy. I'll finish it, but slow and steady in bits and pieces. I wish I hadn't used my credits on this one, but I will finish it and be glad when I am done.

I love any kind of history but this is very hard to listen to due to the droning, monotonous tone of the narrator. I was just about to purchase Volumes II and III but I can't get through the first few hours of this part! What I did hear is very well researched. It could be a lot more interesting with a narrator like Charlton Griffin ("The Roman", "Genghis Khan", "Alexander of Macedon") who has a superb voice for ancient history.

A 5 for Gibbon and a 3 for narrator Bernard Mayes, whose English is barely comprehensible. (Average rating of 4.) The Mayes problem is the charateristic, and maddening, British propensity to drop all r's, coupled with Mayes' habit of rarely stopping for a breath between sentences, let alone between paragraphs. It's a chore--but doable.

It is different to listen to Decline and Fall than to read it. Listening to it allows one to experience the visualization of fight scenes and what was going on in a stronger way. I've owned a copy of the full series since I was 14 and this is a beautiful accompaniment to the written version.

This stands alone as an epic classic.

The World Will Continue These Tales for Generations to Come...

If you are not afraid of the sheer mass of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - get this and listen away... you will have adventure, intrigue and hours of listening pleasure.

Well done. Its a great book and Bernard Mayes is up to the daunting task of reading it.

I do sometimes wonder what Gibbons sources were. And having an index would be great too.
With all three volumes, I am searching to refresh my memory on ..............
"I know such and such is there , I heard it, but where is it, let alone what volume?"