User talk:Richard Keatinge/Archives/2010/January 2010

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Sorry for the late reply
Hello and Happy New Year,

I hope that you have had a chance to celebrate (and the patient is all well now). I have been a bit away for the last few days (closing the year and on vacation), so I didn't get to see your summary in the Gibraltar article until recently. You can see my comment on your pro-inclusion arguments summary here. Could you take a look and decide whether to take it into account?

BTW, looking at your contribs (in order to see if you were available these days) I have seen that you are interested in Gibbon's Decline and Fall. I am in love with that book (the style, the witty comments, the history...) Are you interested in the book? or the period in general? I have also recently read another book about the same issue, a bit more technical (but very very interesting for an aficionado): Bryan Ward-Perkins's The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (2005), which makes a pretty interesting and practical explanation about the decline of Rome. BTW, in that book he makes the peculiar comment that "north Wales can lay claim to being the very last part of the Roman empire to fall to the barbarians" (in 1282!).

Thank you! --Imalbornoz (talk) 10:37, 8 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your comments. I will rewrite as you suggest, and the time may have come to give my opinions on which arguments are actually relevant to the task of writing a good encyclopedic article.


 * Yes, Gibbon is a wonderful writer and historian. I have a longstanding interest in Roman history as well. I am amused by the thought that after Honorius wrote to the British civitates in 410, telling them to look to their own defence, they and their legitimate successors could indeed claim to be part of the Roman Empire. At your recommendation I might buy a copy of Bryan Ward-Perkins' book. Richard Keatinge (talk) 12:03, 8 January 2010 (UTC)