Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire religions that we now label "paganism" was seen as the result of the religious intolerance inherent in the monotheistic Christian faith. The classic expression of this view occurs in the work of Edward Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." As historian Herbert Drake puts it, "It is difficult to overestimate the influence of Gibbon's interpretation on subsequent scholarship." Herbert Drake takes issue with the historiography of Gibbon, arguing that while persecution certainly occurred for religious reasons, that the underlying motivation was consolidation of power in the Constantinian dynasty, which was offered in the form of promoting the cult
Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire he criticized Eysenck for uncritically accepting Thornton's argument that Breuer's patient Anna O. suffered from tuberculous meningitis. Sybil Eysenck, discussing the book in her preface to its 2004 edition, wrote that its "real strength" was that it "not only cast doubt on traditional psychotherapy and psychoanalysis" but suggested behavior therapy as a viable alternative to them, a position in her view justified by subsequent research. She credited her husband with considerable courage in writing the book, and identified it as her favorite among his books. Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire (1985;