Passage (Edward Gibbon, *The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*, 1776, Chapter I): "In the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valor. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury. The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. During a happy period of more than fourscore years, the public administration was conducted by the virtue and abilities of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines. It is the design of this, and of the two succeeding chapters, to describe the prosperous condition of their empire; and afterwards, from the death of Marcus Antoninus, to deduce the most important circumstances of its decline and fall; a revolution which will ever be remembered, and is still felt by the nations of the earth." The tone of the passage is best characterized as:
Anostalgic and elegiac
Bdetached and statistical
Cmeasured and stately
Dironic and disparaging
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. measured and stately
Gibbon's register is the **historical sublime**: long balanced sentences, latinate vocabulary (*comprehended, devolved, fourscore*), formal abstractions (*the gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners*). The prose is grand without being effusive — measured in argument, stately in cadence.
- **A** is close but wrong: *elegiac* implies mourning the loss, but this opening paragraph **announces** the decline as a topic, it does not yet mourn it. The same essay's later chapters do strike elegiac notes; this one does not.
- **B** misreads stately formality as cold statistics. Gibbon's sentences carry value-laden adjectives (*fairest*, *most civilized*, *prosperous*).
- **D** is wrong despite Gibbon's famous irony — none surfaces here. The line about citizens who "enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury" hints at later moral judgment but is not yet ironic.
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