The Grandeur that was Rome, 'is that of humanity and the progress of civilisation'. The books were ground-breaking and successful partly because of their popular as well as scholarly approach and partly because they included what were then newly sumptuous photographic illustrations. Stobart writes in his Preface: 'The pictures are an integral part of my scheme. It is not possible with Rome, as it was with Greece, to let pictures and statues take the place of wars and treaties. Wars and treaties are an essential part of the Grandeur of Rome...the pictures are chosen so that the reader's eye may be able to gather its own impression of the Roman genius.' He disagrees with Edward Gibbon's pessimistic view of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, pointing out that 'The mere notion of empire continuing to decline and fall for five centuries is ridiculous' and remarking that 'this is one of the cases which prove that History is made not so much by heroes or natural forces as by historians', since 'if all the Roman historians had perished and only the inscriptions remained we should have a very different picture of the Roman Empire, a picture much brighter and, I think, much more faithful to truth.' He admires the Romans for their law, discipline, engineering and especially their sanitation, but it is clear that he prefers the Greeks for their art, philosophy, mathematics and literature. Death Stobart wrote and edited several other books on English and Classical literature. Two books, The Divine Spark and The Gospel of Happiness were published posthumously. He died on 11 May 1933, at his country cottage next to West Byfleet golf-course in Surrey and was buried at Old Byfleet, where his grave can still be seen. The offer of a knighthood was in the post when he died. His daughter, Elizabeth Frances, married Antony Cuthbert Spurling (1906-1984), QC, resident magistrate and Crown Counsel at Kisumu and Nairobi, later Solicitor-General of Trinidad, and Attorney-General of Gambia and of Sierra Leone, and was mother of the playwright and author John Spurling (author). Major works The Glory That Was Greece (1911), The Grandeur That Was Rome (1912), References External links John Spurling, his grandson 1878 births 1933 deaths English historians Historians of antiquity People from Dorset People educated at Rugby School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge BBC people British civil servants