...the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-80). Marcus Aurelius, whose reign Gibbon extolled as 'the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy', was a practising Stoic philosopher but no mere quietist.16 His Meditations, which resonate with the...

...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...

...continued to flourish, and it is to this that we now return. The Roman Global Village: Universal Rome If a man were called to fix a period in the history...elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus [96-180 AD]. The vast extent of the Roman empire was governed by absolute power, under the...

...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...elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus [the period from about 90 to ISO].55 Similarly, it is difficult to think of many worse times...

...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...elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.' The emperor Domitian died in 96 CE. Commodus succeeded his father, the philosopher emperor...

...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...without hesitation name that which elapsed from the accession of 33 Marcus Cocceius Nerva (AD 96) to the death of Marcus Aurelius(180)." Durant writes:...

...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,...

...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, was a period of considerable...

...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...

...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...