Edward Gibbon, an English historian, published The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. This is Chapter 45 of that work. He follows Rome from the prosperous age of Trajan and the Antonines, around the year 100, through the fall of the West and on to the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453.

Chapter 45 takes up reign of the Younger Justin—Embassy of the Avars—Their settlement on the Danube—Conquest of Italy by the Lombards—Adoption and reign of Tiberius—Of Maurice—State of Italy under the Lombards and the Exarchs—Of Ravenna—Distress of Rome—Character and pontificate of Gregory the First. The footnotes are not in this reading; what you have is the narrative.