History of the Roman Emperors, Volume 5 of 6: Valentinian to Honorius - Softcover

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We must always remember that in Roman historical writing, before Edward Gibbon there was Tillemont. Indeed, Gibbon acknowledged Tillemont as an inspiration and a corroborative source for his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.History of the Roman Emperors, in six volumes, was one of the major works of Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont (1637-1698), an ecclesiastical historian from a wealthy family in France. He studied at the Petites-Ecoles of Port-Royal. Tillemont retreated to his family estate after the school was suppressed by Louis XIV, and spent the rest of his life in scholarship. At the age of 20 he began collecting material for two grand projects: the first was a history of the early Church. The second project was the Roman emperors. After a period of 33 years research and writing he saw the first volume published in 1690. He took holy orders in 1676 at age 39.In volume 5 Tillemont relied on ancient sources such as Zosimus, Sozomenus, Orosius, Jerome, Eusebius, Ammianus, and little known ecclesiastical and secular sources to cast light on a great many details of Roman imperial rule. One must not be too surprised that a man in holy orders during the reign of the Sun King put forward a thesis of divine will as prime motive in the history of Roman emperors and their behavior towards non-Catholics. In this volume, he expounds on the growth of Christianity under the heirs of Constantine. The chapter on Theodosius is one of the longest of any in the six volumes of Tillemont's history. Another theme is the breakup of Rome under pressure from incessant barbarian invasions.This is the first and only translation of Tillemont into English. Every effort has been made to convey the spirit of the writing style of Tillemont while making it accessible to a modern English speaking audience.

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