Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon (May 8, 1737-January 16, 1794) was an English scholar famous for his six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Largely self-educated, Gibbon studied at Oxford for 14 months before converting to Roman Catholicism and consequently being expelled from the (then) all-Anglican school. He was a master of Latin, Greek, and French, and was inspired to write the Decline and Fall after visiting Rome in 1764. The work was published between 1776 and 1788, and is still known for its powerful writing and scholarship.