Wilders in Rome (2): Crumbling foundations of supremacist mythology [EN]

Edward Gibbon by Henry WaltonMarch 26, 2011, Mr. Wilders continued (see first part) his remarkable horror story in front of a Roman public by referring to Edward Gibbon, a great 18th century British historian, whose "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (1776-1789, 6 vol.) was a first exhaustive study into the fragility of empires.

Inevitably, Wilders (or his ghost writer, for Mr. Wilders did not study at an University) concentrates on a 402 AD (or 401 or 405 AD) event. Some Germanic [and Slavic, HR] peoples crossed the Rhine river and started an invasion into the Roman Gaul lands. Which lead, finally, to plundering of the City of Rome in 406 AD (or 410 AD). Gibbon's source is Jerome in Bethlehem, who was observing from a large distance in space and time what had happened to the Western part of the Roman Empire. The event is not central to Edward Gibbon's theory about the way and causes of the Roman downfall. But Jerome was one of the few written sources he could access. Historiography has much progressed since then. But Mr. Wilders needed a source to underline his anti-islamic world vision and his idée-fixe about Christian supremacy. So he said:

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