JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

illiant success...and the glory of his victories in Judaea appeared to have justified the truth of
the omen....
209. “Between Judaea and Syria, is Mount Carmel.... They have no image of the
god.... The tradition of antiquity recognizes only an altar.... Vespasian was there, offering
sacrifice and pondering his secret hopes.... The priest...said to him: ‘Whatever be your
purposes, Vespasian - whether you think of building a house, of enlarging your estate, or
augmenting the number of your slaves - there is given you a vast habitation, boundless
territory, a multitude of men!’....
210. “The initiative in transferring the Empire to Vespasian, was taken at Alexandria....
The [Roman] Army of Judaea on July 3rd [in A.D. 69] took the oath to Vespasian in person
with such eager alacrity, that they did not want to wait for the return of his son Titus who was
then on his way back from Syria.... It was arranged that Titus should pursue the war in
Judaea, while Vespasian should secure the passes into Egypt.”
211. In Rome herself, “the soldiers...overflowed the crowded camp, dispersed
throughout the porticoes.... Amidst the allurements of the city and all shameful excesses, they
wasted their strength in idleness and their energies in riot.... A large portion of them
quartered themselves in the notoriously pestilential neighbourhood of the Vatican.... Much,
however, as Vitellius indulged his generals, his soldiers enjoyed yet greater licence.... The
sole road to power was to glut the insatiable appetites of Vitellius by prodigal entertainments,
extravagance, and riot. The Emperor himself...is believed to have squandered nine hundred
million sesterces in a very few months....
212. “The continual rumours of civil war, raised the courage of the Britons.... We had
war on our hands.... Germany suffered from the supineness of our [Roman] generals and the
mutinous commandment of our legions; the assaults of enemies and the perfidy of allies all but
overthrew the power of Rome...
213. “Italy was in a blaze of war.... All other nations were equally restless.... With
this World-wide convulsion, the Imperial power was changing hands.... Sabinus was able to
bring into the Capitol his own children - and Domitian, [Vespasian] his brother’s son.... Said
Sabinus...: ‘The rivalry of Vitellius and Vespasian was being settled by conflicts between
legions..., with Spain, Germany and Britain in revolt.... [In Rome,] the defenders, issuing
forth on the roofs of these buildings, showered tiles and stones on the colonnade.’”
214. It was now December, 69 A.D. “The fire passed to the colonnades...adjoining the
[Pagan Roman] temples.... Soon the [wooden] ‘eagles’ supporting the pediment, which were
of old timber, fed the flames. And so the Capitol...was burned to the ground. This was the
most deplorable and disgraceful event that had happened to the Commonwealth of Rome since
the foundation of the city [in B.C. 753].... The soldiers were busy with bloodshed and
massacre.... It was a terrible and hideous sight that presented itself throughout the city.... In
one [and the same] spot, rivers of blood and heaps of corpses, and close by, prostitutes and
men of character as infamous.... One was ready to believe the country to be mad at once with
rage and lust.”
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