Revelation 6

Emperor Sold at Public Auction

August 30, 2016 by Christine Miller Leave a Comment

It became so bad that the position of emperor was bought and sold at public auction to the highest bidder (The First Four Seals, pg. 25).

“The Praetorians had violated the sanctity of the throne by the atrocious murder of Pertinax; they dishonored the majesty of it by their subsequent conduct. The camp was without a leader … Amidst the wild disorder … the more prudent of the Praetorians, apprehensive that … they should not obtain a just price for so valuable a commodity, ran out upon the ramparts; and, with a loud voice, proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to the best bidder by public auction.

“This infamous offer, the most insolent excess of military license … reached at length the ears of Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, who, regardless of the public calamities, was indulging himself in the luxury of the table. His wife and his daughter, his freedmen and his parasites, easily convinced him that he deserved the throne, and earnestly conjured him to embrace so fortunate an opportunity.”

(Dion, L. lxxiii. p. 1234. Herodian, l. ii. p. 63. Hist. August p. 60. Though the three historians agree that it was in fact an auction, Herodian alone affirms that it was proclaimed as such by the soldiers.)

Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1, Ch. 5, “The Sale of the Empire to Didius Julianus,” Pts. I and II.

Didius Julianus, Roman Emperor 193 AD | Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.

One Hundred Years of Disorder

August 29, 2016 by Christine Miller Leave a Comment

Eighty emperors ruled in the space of ninety years (sometimes there were three emperors at a time, set forth by the armies in different parts of the Empire, who fought one another for supreme control); and most met death by violence. (The First Four Seals, pg. 25).

“But when the line of Severus ended (235 A.D.), the storm broke. The barbaric troops in one province after another set up their puppet emperors to fight among themselves for the throne of the Mediterranean world. The proclamation of a new emperor would be followed again and again by news of his assassination. From the leaders of the barbaric soldier class, after the death of Commodus, the Roman empire received eighty rulers in ninety years.”

James Breasted, Ancient Times: A History of the Early World, p. 673.

“But the Roman empire, after the authority of the senate had sunk into contempt, was a vast scene of confusion. The royal, and even noble, families of the provinces had long since been led in triumph before the car of the haughty republicans. The ancient families of Rome had successively fallen beneath the tyranny of the Caesars; and whilst those princes were shackled by the forms of a commonwealth, and disappointed by the repeated failure of their posterity, it was impossible that any idea of hereditary succession should have taken root in the minds of their subjects. The right to the throne, which none could claim from birth, every one assumed from merit. The daring hopes of ambition were set loose from the salutary restraints of law and prejudice; and the meanest of mankind might, without folly, entertain a hope of being raised by valor and fortune to a rank in the army, in which a single crime would enable him to wrest the sceptre of the world from his feeble and unpopular master. After the murder of Alexander Severus, and the elevation of Maximin, no emperor could think himself safe upon the throne, and every barbarian peasant of the frontier might aspire to that august, but dangerous station.”

Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1, Ch. 7, “Tyranny of Maximin, Rebellion, Civil Wars, Death of Maximin, Part I.”

The Reign of Commodus

August 29, 2016 by Christine Miller Leave a Comment

The golden age of the Roman Empire ended in 180 AD with the reign of Commodus … (The First Four Seals, pg. 25).

“In the view of the Greek historian Dio Cassius, a contemporary observer, the accession of … Commodus in 180 AD marked the descent ‘from a kingdom of gold to one of rust and iron’—a famous comment which has led some historians, notably Edward Gibbon, to take Commodus’ reign as the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.”

“History of the Roman Empire,” Wikipedia.

“The first years of his reign were uneventful, but in 183 he was attacked by an assassin at the instigation of his sister Lucilla and many members of the senate, which felt deeply insulted by the contemptuous manner in which Commodus treated it. From this time he became tyrannical. Many distinguished Romans were put to death as implicated in the conspiracy, and others were executed for no reason at all. The treasury was exhausted by lavish expenditure on gladiatorial and wild beast combats and on the soldiery, and the property of the wealthy was confiscated. … Plots against his life naturally began to spring up. … He was poisoned … on the 31st of December, 192.”

“Commodus, Lucius Aelius Aurelius,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 6, pg. 777.

Second Seal Symbolism

August 29, 2016 by Christine Miller Leave a Comment

The Greek word used for “kill” here means to put “to death by violence,” and directly implies murder. (The First Four Seals, pg. 24).

Strong’s G4969: sphazo, “… to slay, slaughter, butcher … to put to death by violence … mortally wounded.”

Joseph Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 609.

Now because the same symbolism of a horse and a rider is used with this seal as with the first seal, traditionally, it was believed that this seal is related to the first in both time and meaning (The First Four Seals, pg, 24).

“In the fulfillment of these figures there would naturally be a relation of the first four symbols historically, with the possibility of some overlapping in the fulfillment. Remember then, the design of the book is that the first four symbols in each group are interrelated.”

Fred Miller, Revelation: A Panorama, Ch. 3, “The Opening of the Seven Seals.”

For the Scriptural interpretation of the colors and symbols of the first four seals, as traditionally understood by the church, there is no better source than Albert Barnes, who employs minute detail in his explanation of each symbol, in Notes on the New Testament … : Revelation, pp. 132-158.