Yet he has smelted and cast it into the grand shapes we see.
The fourth volume is nearly confined to the reign, or rather epoch, of Justinian,--a magnificent subject, which he has painted in his loftiest style of gorgeous narrative.

The campaigns of Belisarius and Narses are related with a clearness and vigour that make us feel that Gibbon's merits as a military historian have not been quite sufficiently recognised.

He had from the time of his service in the militia taken continued interest in tactics and all that was connected with the military art.

It was no idle boast when he said that the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers had not been useless to the historian of the Roman empire.

Military matters perhaps occupy a somewhat excessive space in his pages.