I really enjoyed this history until the last chapter - The Rise of Christianity. It is clear that Gibbon is very much biased in favor of Christianity despite calling his account impartial. The rest of the book does seem largely free from bias and as close to the historical truth as possible. This last section, however, really just serves as an apology for the inevitability of the rise of Christianity due to its inherent truth. I didn't realize that his history would turn into a religious text in its later chapters. Had he not gone to so much trouble to establish the superiority of Christianity, I would have rated this a five star book, but he drifted so far from the premise of his book, that I had to dock a star.

The rise of Christianity is important for the history of the empire, but it's not necessary to go into so much detail about how the structures slowly developed and how the religion won so many people over because it's true and its obvious truth called out to the people just searching for it. This section has important parts, but I felt I lost them because of all the proselytizing.