"The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" is a fundamental work of literature on the history of Europe, written by the outstanding British historian Edward Gibbon. In the first volume of this work, the author talks about the origin of the Roman state, its development in the period of antiquity, as well as the causes and consequences of the beginning of its decline. Gibbon successfully combined factual material with analysis of events, presenting the complex process of the collapse of a great empire through the prism of political, social and cultural aspects. The book became a classic work, an important source for studying the history of Rome and its worldview in the 18th century."