...Euphrates, its flourishing trade, its lively Greek intellectual life - the age which Gibbon called 'the period in the history of the world during which the...condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous' - even then we find too many expressions of unease about the situation of the Greek community within...

...Gibbon's picture of decline and fall, according to which the philosopher-emperor had presided over "the period in the history of the world, during which the...of the human race was most happy and prosperous," whereas Constantine, by contrast, was thrown up during an age of barbarism and superstition which destroyed...

...empire— the period Gibbon singled out, with characteristic Eurocentric eloquence, as "the period of the history of the world during which the condition...of the human race was most happy and prosperous"— had begun. Whatever the manifest shortcomings of Gibbon's formulation, it is clearly relevant to Plutarch's...

...'Of the Constitution of the Roman Empire in the Age oftheAntonines' If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the...elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus [ie 96—180 AD]. The vast extent of the Roman empire was governed by absolute power, under...

...the Roman Empire in the Age of the Antonines' If a man were called to fix the period in the historv of the world during which the condition of the human...elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus [ie 96-180 ADJ. The vast extent of the Roman empire was governed hv ahsolute power, under...

...sand in the universe.' Even the cynical Gibbon had to tip his hat: 'If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the...would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from [96 to 180 AD]' — That is, the era of those 'Five Good Emperors.'4 Today's democracies would not...

...observed, "If a man were called to fix the period of the history of the world during which the condition JO of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he...elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman Empire was governed by absolute power, under the guidance of...

...Antonine line. His short reign inaugurated what Gibbon — taking a Eurocentric view — called "the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous."78 HOMOSEXUALITY AND CIVILIZATION 19. Antinous. Delphi, c. 130 CE. ander in reaching the...

...imperial authority gave formal recognition to his works ;TT and, there* " If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world, during which the...elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus (AD 96-180). The vast extent of the Roman empire was governed by absolute power, under the...

...both imperial power and imperial longevity. As Gibbon wrote, "If a man were called upon to fix the period in the history of the world during which the...without hesitation name that which elapsed from the accession of Nerva to death of Aurelius. Their united reigns are possibly the only r~ ot history in...