The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

By: Edward Gibbon

Narrated by: Charlton Griffin

Length: 126 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Here in a single volume is the entire, unabridged recording of Gibbon's masterpiece. Beginning in the second century at the apex of the Pax Romana, Gibbon traces the arc of decline and complete destruction through the centuries across Europe and the Mediterranean. It is a thrilling and cautionary tale of splendor and ruin, of faith and hubris, and of civilization and barbarism. Follow along as Christianity overcomes paganism... before itself coming under intense pressure from Islam. It is a story that begins in Rome and ends in the capture of Constantinople by the Turks almost 1,500 years later. To aid in navigating this massive work, please refer to the accompanying PDF, which contains a table of contents and starting times for each chapter.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

Public Domain (P)2015 Audio Connoisseur

Outstanding Reading of a Classic Historical Work

OK, so I'm only about 20 hours, with 106 hours to go, but what a joy so far. Charlton Griffin's performance really brings the text alive. This is much more enjoyable to listen to than you might expect. The fact that Gibbon is unafraid to express his own opinion in just about every sentence he writes is part of what makes this fun. He was a phenomenal writer and Griffin is a phenomenal reader. If this peaks your interest at all, you should definitely give it a try.

Perfect!

Not just a history of Rome but a beautiful piece of art and literature. Perfection!

A classic but dated work, well narrated

An important historical work brought to life by an excellent narration. I have owned the books for years but had trouble committing to read. I definitely missed being able to refer back pages, read the footnotes, etc, but honestly finding the audiobook was the only reason I was finally able to finish this work. The style and diction is definitely a strong indicator that this work is over 200 years old now, and I do find Gibbon’s prose to be eloquent but at times unnecessarily descriptive or wordy.

The narrator has a great voice and while his intonation is a bit unusual at times, I found it engaging to keep my interest when the work was dry. I played the audio at 1.25x which is typical for me and found that was about the right pace to keep me engaged.

My only major complaint was the numerous editing/audio issues of repeated sections, glitches, and one memorable instance when the narrator’s short break from reading was recorded in its entirety, including his words “pause ........ resume”.

Overall definitely not a page turner but I was glad to be able to appreciate this work.

A journey.

It's impossible for me to sum up this behemoth of a historical text in review. All I will say is that this book expanded my mind. I took a journey through the ages, and I am better for it. The best part is that it's actually really humourous.

great history, but easy to get lost

Gibbon's work is clearly a masterpiece, but it can be difficult to follow. He casually refers to detailed points of eurasian geography, goes for long periods of time without reminding you of the year/ century being discussed (even as he sometimes jumps around a little), and characters are generally introduced once and then referred to only by name after that point- so if you ever lose focus you can become more than a little lost. This is a book tempting to listen to sped up due to its massive size, but there is a danger you will just lose all comprehension by doing so (1.75 was my ideal speed, anything faster I was left behind).

The parts I did follow i appreciated- not just because of the intriguing ways that truth is stranger than fiction, but because it also provides insight into the 1776 perspective of the author as well. Gibbon is not shy at all about declaring his prejudices/ who he thinks the villains or just "weak leaders" are- which at least helps it to be more entertaining (Wikipedia claims he's hard on Christianity, but he seems pretty balanced there- he's quite a bit more harsh in his language regarding eunuchs, for example). I enjoyed the parts up to 410 and Alaric's sack of Rome more than the parts after (with the exception of Atila, Justinian, and Muhammed), but that may have been me getting burned out and not Gibbon's writing quality declining.

All in all it's more like hundreds of barely intertwined short stories/ opinion pieces than a grand historical narrative. Definitely a valuable read for anyone interested in European history or late 18th century opinions regarding European history. The narration by Charlton Griffin was excellent, and the couple seconds of music at the end of each chapter was a nice way to break things up/ surprisingly not annoying. Thanks for the great listen-

Not for the faint of heart…

… But if you're crazy about history, or want to know more about the origins of modern Europe, the Middle East, and the entire Mediterranean region, this book is an extremely good read. It's monumentally boring at times, and of course mired in the past as any 18th century work must be, and enormously prejudiced at times, but for all those faults it is well written and well researched.

I wanted to really like it....

Wow. This is an epic slug fest, but I finished it. It’s not so easy listen at all. Charlton Griffin is an excellent narrator, one of the very best. It’s so long, it’s not easy to follow. It’s perhaps too detailed, but that’s not the problem. The author’s peculiar biases take up an exorbitant amount of time. And it’s meandering in its focus. But there’s no denying that the work is epic in its scope.

A Titanic work of early modern historical investigation

Edward Gibbon’s “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” has long been heralded as one of the first true scholarly explorations of the causes of decline of one of the greatest empires the world has ever known.
Though in recent years some of his conclusions have been questioned and some of the veracity of his statements challenged, this epic work that consumed 20 years of his life has nonetheless stood as a pillar on which more modern historians have build our current understanding of the Roman Empire.

You really cannot get more bang for your buck from a single audible credit than this book. At 126 hours it must be one of the longest titles included on the platform. A special commendation must be given to the narrator, Charlton Griffin, who does a wonderful job putting into voice the sometimes turgid nature of the work. The simple fact that he voiced the entire 126 hours worth of content is what made me give this review, which is my first one on Audible.
If you have any interest in the Roman Empire specifically or ancient history generally, you can’t go wrong with this book. 5 stars

A Goal Reached

I've always wanted to read this and listening over the course of a year (interspersed with breaks for other books) was a great way to do it. I learned so much. It is history and Gibbon was writing from his western perspective. But listening was the best way for me to actually accomplish my goal of reading the entire treatise.

Good book

It’s a lot of history. Some parts are hard to concentrate, but lots of really good stuff.