But
Gibbon had little but dross to deal with. Yet he has smelted and cast
it into the grand shapes we see.
The fourth volume is nearly confined to the reign, or rather epoch, of
Justinian,--a magnificent subject, which he has painted in his
loftiest style of gorgeous narrative. The campaigns of Belisarius and
Narses are related with a clearness and vigour that make us feel that
Gibbon's merits as a military historian have not been quite
sufficiently recognised. He had from the time of his service in the
militia taken continued interest in tactics and all that was connected
with the military art. It was no idle boast when he said that the
captain of the Hampshire grenadiers had not been useless to the
historian of the Roman empire. Military matters perhaps occupy a
somewhat excessive space in his pages. Still, if the operations of
war are to be related, it is highly important that they should be
treated with intelligence, and knowledge how masses of men are moved,
and by a writer to whom the various incidents of the camp, the march,
and the bivouac, are not matters of mere hearsay, but of personal
experience.
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