on the persecution of the Christians

Along with his rather flat discussions of the Persians, I think Gibbon’s chapters on the persecution of Christianity are among his weakest, despite the handful of great passages I’ve cited here.

His lack of sympathy for religion puts him in too critical a frame of mind, as he spends a good deal of energy debunking the probably exaggerated claims of thousands of Christian legionaries nailed to crosses, and asserting that many of the supposed relics of martyrs were actually bones pillaged from rank-and-file skeletons from the Roman catacombs.

He also rightly points out that there is no easy way for an honest historian to determine which of the stories of persecution are entirely accurate. That said, his critical reservations dominate the chapters so excessively that there isn’t much color or vehemence left over for his descriptions of the actual persecutions that are well-enough documented. These sections could have been masterful, but instead end up feeling merely dutiful.

By contrast, the descriptions of the geography of Constantinople are stirring, and as one who has visited and loved present-day Istanbul, it was a pleasure to follow his geographical survey of the place.