17596. POST-GIBBON THEORIES ON THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. This paper considers how historians’ approaches and theses on the fall of the Western Roman Empire since the time of Edward Gibbon (1727-1794) and his seminal book, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. First describes Gibbon’s thesis and then looks at similarities and differences in historians’ approaches in subsequent years. KEYWORDS: roman empire reasons decline fall historiography gibbons revisionist history. Written 2005. Turabian/Chicago with bottom-of-the-page footnotes and separate bibliography. 12 pages, 15 footnotes, 13 bibliographic sources. 3,223 words.