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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Herberto, post: 2695645, member: 74222&quot;]What Gibbon suggests is totally irrelevant as his works are outdated and no longer used in the academia as secondary source anymore these days as his theories and contradictions about the fall of the Roman Empire, his fallacies about Byzantium and the Middle Ages have been thoroughly refuted by the scholars. However the most of the casual readers often don’t know better and since Gibbon’s outdated works are most readily available in Anglophone countries they decide to read him without realizing his suspicious materials are from the 18th century.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here some lectures about Roman Empire at the Yale, try to scroll to 28:00 and note what he says about Gibbon’s works and theories:</p><p><br /></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]ZC8JcWVRFp8[/MEDIA]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Who I admire most? – I don’t know since it is all a discourse. It is perhaps easier to suggest who I despise most. If the criterion were military success, religious toleration and legacy then Augustus and Constantine the Great would surely top it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Augustus laid the foundation of the empire, and the month August is named to honor him. Constantine the Great did every things right: military he succeeded 100% as he won the empire from a base in York, he was tolerant as he reversed the policy of Diolectian’s persecution and instead allowed religious toleration, he also founded the Nova Roma(later Constantinople) that after 395 when the Empire was divided should secure Byzantine Empire for about 1000 years and which would be the most stable state throughout Middle Ages.</p><p><br /></p><p>Diocletian was clever both militarily and politically but his persecution of Manicheans, Christians and others will downgrade him. Theodosius was also good but his persecution of Pagans will also downgrade him. Apart from the Crisis of the Third Century, the bad emperors that pops up are Caracalla(insane?) and Elagabalus(imbecile?), and maybe Commodus. Julian the Apostate definitely was also a bad emperor as he was a completely disaster against the Persians and lost much land what was gained by Diolectian and Constantine the Great prior and not to mention his abysmal policies where he alienated himself in the bureaucracy.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most may have seen them already, but in case new readers have came here are my coins of late Roman Empire(the Emperors listed are not necessarily my favourites):</p><p><br /></p><p>Contantine: first Rome with Sol Invictus, the second Siscia minted:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]605603[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]605604[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Constantius, first Nummus Thessaloniki minted, the second a siliqua minted in Arles</p><p>[ATTACH=full]605605[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]605607[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Theodosius: Nummus, Siscia minted,</p><p>[ATTACH=full]605606[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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