No part can be
fairly judged without regard to the remainder. In fact, Gibbon was
much more an artist than perhaps be suspected, and less of a
philosophic thinker on history than he would have been willing to
allow. His shortcomings in this latter respect will be adverted to
presently; we are now considering his merits. And among these the very
high one of lofty and vigorous narrative stands pre-eminent. The
campaigns of Julian, Belisarius, and Heraclius are painted with a dash
and clearness which few civil historians have equalled. His
descriptive power is also very great. The picture of Constantinople in
the seventeenth chapter is, as the writer of these pages can testify,
a wonderful achievement, both for fidelity and brilliancy, coming from
a man who had never seen the place.
"If we survey Byzantium in the extent which it acquired with
the august name of Constantinople, the figure of the
imperial city may be represented under that of an unequal
triangle. The obtuse point, which advances towards the east
and the shores of Asia, meets and repels the waves of the
Thracian Bosphorus.
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