谈谈英国历史学家爱德华•吉本
On English historian Edward Gibbon
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| 爱德华•吉本的史学巨著《罗马帝国的衰亡史》（The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire） |
决心是下了，但一部罗马帝国史，上下两千年，如何写起？从传说中的罗马建城（公元前8世纪）到西罗马帝国的灭亡（公元476年），从君士坦丁堡建都到（330年）到东罗马帝国的灭亡（1453年），中间发生了多少故事？如何着笔，确实是个费踌躇的问题。从下决心到真正动手写作，又经过了9年的时间。这9年中吉本如何查阅史料，如何谋篇布局，我们已经不得而知，但从吉本后来描述他写初稿期间的困惑，我们仍然可以体会到史家创作之艰辛：
At the outset, all was dark and doubtful; the title of the work, the true era of the Decline and Fall of the Empire, the limits of the introduction, the division of the chapters, and the order of the narrative; and I was often tempted to cast away the labor of seven years. The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise. Many experiments were made before I could hit the middle tone between a dull chronicle and a rhetorical declamation: three times did I compose the first chapter, and twice the second and third, before I was tolerably satisfied with their effect.
在这里，吉本一共提出了五个问题：书名如何确定？时期如何划分？序论如何界定？章节如何规划？叙述如何展开？对于这样一部史学巨著来说，任何一个方面在开始没有筹划好，全书就不可能成功。罗马本身政治、军事、文化的兴衰，当然是书的主题，但除此之外，当时北欧各民族的兴起，各种不同文化融合与交锋（基督教与伊斯兰教的传播，蒙古族的西侵，土耳其人的侵入和十字军东征等），都对罗马帝国产生着巨大的影响，也正是这些因素，使得罗马帝国和整个欧洲的历史如此错综复杂，多姿多彩。所以吉本的历史，名为罗马史，其实是一部欧洲通史。写这样一部历史，如果按照纪年平铺直叙，必然写成一本流水大账；若过分关注枝节，必然会旁逸斜出，不分主次。吉本的写法是：一方面写罗马帝国的纪年实录，另一方面在重大事件和专题上多着笔墨，如伊斯兰教创始者的言行和教义的传播，第一次十字军东征和君士坦丁堡被围困和灭亡。吉本采用了庄重、缜密、从容不迫的“中间文体”（middle tone）,将复杂的历史事件和深刻的社会原因讲述得如教科书般平实易懂。作者功力深厚，加之遣词造句十分用心，即便是简单的叙述，到了吉本笔下，也顿生华彩，蔚为文章。自传说：“第一章三易其稿，第二、三章两易其稿，始差强人意”。数年后，吉本练就了自己的文体，形成了独特的风格，最后两卷，从起笔到付印，竟不须更改一字！
十四年孜孜不倦的写作终于换来了成功，吉本郑重其事地记下了全书写成那一天夜里的心情：
I have presumed to mark the moment of conception: I shall now commemorate the hour of my final deliverance. It was on the day, or rather night, of the 27th of June, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last line of the last page, in a summer house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias, which commands a prospect of the country, the lake, and the mountains. The air was temperate, the sky was serene, the silver orb of the moon was reflected from the waters, and all nature was silent. I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on recovery of my freedom, and perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future date of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.
…that now, in the present hour, he is imparting some degree of amusement or knowledge to his friend in a distant land; that one day his mind will be familiar to the grandchildren of those who are yet unborn.
这是吉本自传中非常感人的一段文字。“最终解脱”（my final deliverance）和“重获自由”（recovery of my freedom）道出了作者在大作完成时的愉快心情，但这短暂的愉悦很快就被依依惜别的惆怅所代替。十几年来与作品朝夕相伴，一旦脱稿，仿佛老友分别，顿生落寞之感。这种落寞惆怅又引发了吉本人生苦短的感慨：“史学著作能存世多久，我无法预测；唯一能够断定的是历史学家的生命，终究是倏忽短暂，难以逆料的”（and that whatsoever might be the future date of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious）。但在上段文字的结尾，我们看到吉本又跳出了自怨自艾的小圈子，代之以积极喜悦的心境。因为他想到，“此时此刻，远方的朋友正从这部历史中汲取知识，获得快乐；也许将来，今天尚未出生的婴儿成为祖父一辈，他们的儿孙仍会读我的历史，熟知我的思想文章”（that now, in the present hour, he is imparting some degree of amusement or knowledge to his friend in a distant land; that one day his mind will be familiar to the grandchildren of those who are yet unborn）。
《罗马帝国衰亡史》大获成功，多次再版，至今仍是研究古罗马和欧洲历史的重要典籍，吉本也由此奠定了他在史学界泰斗的地位。1794年1月16日，这位伟大的历史学家在睡眠中离开了人世。
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