01094nam a2200169Ia 450000500170000000800410001702000180005808200190007610000200009524500270011526000370014250005830017965000220076294200120078499900190079695201090081520250714155853.0250714s9999    xx            000 0 und d  a9780521103459  a937.06072bGOS  aGossman, Lionel 4aThe Empire Unpossess'd  bCambridge University Pressc2008  aOne of a small number of historical texts that have become classics, Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire demands and deserves the kind of attention readers habitually grant to the classics of fictional literature. In Lionel Gossman's thematic and rhetorical study of Gibbon's masterpiece, the foundation of authority is seen as the historian's chief concern. The central problem of the work - the foundation of political authority - also appears in another form, Gossman contends, as a central problem of the work - that of the authority of the historical text itself.  aPolitical Science  cENGLISH  c575846d575846  00104070aACLbACLc7Bd2025-07-14l0o937.06072 GOSp239295r2025-07-14 15:58:53w2025-07-14yENGLISH