EDWARD GIBBON Efq: born the 8tMay 1737. Engraved by Jn. Hall from an Original Picture plainted by Sir Joskin-Regnobiks. London. Pablithidna the Act directs Feb 7191780 by W Strahan, T. Cadell. A THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. By EDWARD GIBBON, Efq; VOLUME THE FIRST. A NEW EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR W. STRAHAN; AND T. CADELL, IN THE STRAND. MDCC LXXXII. ACA LIBER IT PREFACE. T is not my intention to detain the reader by expatiating on the variety, or the importance of the fubject, which I have undertaken to treat; fince the merit of the choice would ferve to render the weakness of the execution still more apparent, and still less excufable. But as I have prefumed to lay before the Public a first volume only of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, it will perhaps be expected that I fhould explain, in a few words, the nature and limits of my general plan. The memorable series of revolutions, which, in the course of about thirteen centuries, gradually undermined, and at length destroyed, the solid fabric of Roman greatness, may, with some propriety, be divided into the three following periods. I. The first of these periods may be traced from the age of Trajan and the Antonines, when the Ro |