...historian and author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, claims that 'if man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation' look to Roman history before the beginning of its...

...Gibbon made a radiant assessment of the period within which Hadrian ruled: 'If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the race were most happy and most prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from...

...makes a great deal.59 In language which Gibbon was to echo and invert, he says: If a man were called to fix upon the period in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race - 'Europe' has now become the globe was most calamitous and afflicted, he would, without hesitation,...

...Marcus Aurelius. It was of this period that Edward Gibbon wrote, ~— : If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian...

..."Heroes of History" by Will Durant. Durant quotes Gibbons thus: "If a man were to be called upon to fix the period, in the history of the world, during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would without hesitation name that which elapsed from the accession of 33...

...Edward Gibbon (see Chapter 13 above, under 'crimes and follies') said: 'If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian...

...to this that we now return. The Roman Global Village: Universal Rome If a man were called to fix a period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would without hesitation name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian...

...unusual peace and stability for the Roman empire. The eighteenthcentury historian Edward Gibbon called it "the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous" (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. 3). The third century, by contrast,...

...few families while the rest of the citizenry fell into poverty. Gibbon fixed the second century AD as the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was happiest and most prosperous.49 Meiners gave that designation to the other end of Roman conquest, on...

...befall this Eden after the death of Marcus Aurelius, declared that, 'If a man were called upon to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was the most happy and prosperous he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death...