(Guichou the twelfth lunar month 15), January 16, 1794, death of British historian Edward Gibbon.

1794, 16, 2009, the outstanding modern British historian Edward Gibbon, author of the world-renowned historian monumental "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," a book died.
Gibbon was born on April 27, 1737 to a bourgeois family in London near Pu Tenai town. Severe due to the untimely death of the mother, father, him since childhood, to cultivate silence introverted and reading into addiction characteristics. In his youth, he read books, especially fond of historians. Gibbon wrote: memories initially during learning life reading, free and any reading, but I'm lonely when work and comfort. "
Gibbon at the age of 22, voted pen from the ring, served in the military for about 4 years. In January 1763, he left England, to the European continent roaming. First spent some time in Paris, France. At that time, Paris was the center of the European Enlightenment, Gibbon profound impact here. In 1764, his swim Italy pay homage ancient Roman ruins, an upsurge of agitation, imagination, determined to write a History of the Decline and Fall of Rome.
1770, his father died, he settled down in London, and began writing the "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The night of 27 June 1787, Yoshimoto finished the last chapter. From the generation of the idea of ​​writing to finish, it took 20 years to pay him a lifetime of effort. "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" is a voluminous masterpiece. The book is Volume 6 of 71 chapters and more than 120 million words. Although due to limitations of the historical idealism, there are many flaws in the book, but informative, the writing is gorgeous, vivid language, tastes. Birth, and immediately won a European academic praised. The well-known American economist Adam Schmidt to write a letter to congratulate him, said the book so that he could be included in the European cultural and historical circles first. Indeed, the "History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" is a treasure house of human historians add a valuable legacy, which was translated into many languages ​​and is widely spread in the world.