Is the six volume set of Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline of the Roman Empire worth reading today or is there are much better series available by a modern author on Rome?

Thanks.

I finally worked my way through it.  Yes, it is good.  Maybe modern historians would disagree with some of Gibbons, but considering the 2 centuries of separation, that is understandable.

It is kind of slow going.  XVIII century writing is like that.  I find Adam Smith easier to read.  I really get amused at the plugs that Gibbons gives to both Smith and Hume.  

I would say try it.  Most modern people wouldn't like it, but if you are asking, you are probably one of the few that would.

Plus, it is still in print after all these years.  Some one must be reading it.

If nothing else, read the chapters on the spread of Christianity.  They are the most controversial.  

I believe that he makes an erroneous assumption that Christianity and the Germans alone were responsible for the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire. (The Eastern Roman Empire aka the Byzantine Empire would exist until 1453).

In my humble opinion, the fall of Rome has more to do with the inherent flaws in it's economics, the massive welfare state beginning in the 1st Century B.C, and the fact that the Empire had grown far too large to be administered from one city, due to the fact that they did not have modern communications and transportation.

read it as background if for nothing else. I agree with post above, 18th century writers could be some what verbose.

Gibbon is where modern scholarship regarding Rome begins.

Recommended for History majors, not very accessible for most readers.

Does he take a "Great Man" approach to history by discussing the leaders of Rome or is he more focused on the events themselves?

I would start  with The Rise of Rome by Anthony Everitt.  Makes sense to start at the beginning.

Just finished that one a few days ago.

Reading Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando-Collins right now and just about done with it.  Good book with a lot of information. Read last night about the Siege of Amida and man that was an insane conflict.  I'm seeing a lot of the decline and the fall through this book and it's really clear to see how bad the internal political fighting was towards the end.

Thinking of reading the new book coming out by Mary Beard entitled S.P.Q.R. as I read an article by her the other day and she seems to have a good grasp of Roman society.

If you want a better read, read Peter Heather's book the fall of the Roman empire. In the end Gibbons blames the fall of Rome on religion, which is wrong. Religion was a small part of the fall of Rome, or at least the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

Adrian Goldsworthy, and John Lazenby has good stuff.

Definitely worth reading, but it is the ultimate wall of text.  Furthermore, reading it might be the loneliest feeling in the world as you watch your fellowman wandering around clueless that history is truly repeating itself; and you have this knowledge and there is very little you can do except vote and buy more ammo! See if any of this sounds familiar:.  

"The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy."

"The Italians, who had long since renounced the exercise of arms, were surprised, after forty years' peace, by the approach of a formidable Barbarian, whom they abhorred, as the enemy of their religion, as well as of their republic."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gibbon/03/daf03033.htm

When Rome fell, the gates were opened from within, while the powers that be rested safely, they thought, behind armed guards and gates:

"While the emperor and his court enjoyed, with sullen pride, the security of the marches and fortifications of Ravenna, they abandoned Rome, almost without defence...

"The king of the Goths, who no longer dissembled his appetite for plunder and revenge, appeared in arms under the walls of the capital; and the trembling senate, without any hopes of relief, prepared, by a desperate resistance, to defray the ruin of their country. But they were unable to guard against the secret conspiracy of their slaves and domestics; who, either from birth or interest, were attached to the cause of the enemy. At the hour of midnight, the Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gibbon/03/daf03019.htm

I have read some of it. It's a massive volume! You can pick it up online for free. iIRc the books start during the time of Antoninus Pius so if you are looking for earlier Roman history you will have to go elsewhere.