History of Rome (Mommsen) historian of his century or of ours. His only rival in any century was Edward Gibbon, whose monumental History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire complements rather than competes with Mommsen's superb description of the Roman republic." One encyclopaedic reference summarizes: "Equally great as antiquary, jurist, political and social historian, Mommsen [had] no rivals. He combined the power of minute investigation with a singular faculty for bold generalization... ." About the "History of Rome" the universal historian Arnold J. Toynbee writes, "Mommsen wrote a great book, which certainly will always be reckoned among the masterpieces of Western
Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline (French: "Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence") is an 18th-century book written by French political philosopher Montesquieu. First published in 1734, it is widely considered by scholars to be among Montesquieu's best known works and was an inspiration to Gibbon's more extensive "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". In 1734, the book was first published anonymously as an octavo by Jacques Desbordes