JERUSALEM; ROME; REVELATION - The Preterist Archive

215. “There was an unnatural recklessness.... Vitellius, compelled by threatening
swords, first...beheld his own statues falling round him, and...was then driven along.... He fell
under a shower of blows, and the mob reviled the dead man with the same heartlessness with
which they had flattered him when he was alive.... Domitian came forward to meet the
leaders of the party; he was universally saluted with the title ‘Caesar’....
216. “Sword in hand, throughout the capital, the conquerors hunted down the
conquered with merciless hatred. The streets were choked with carnage, the squares and
temples reeked with blood, for men were massacred everywhere.... The ferocity...in the first
impulse of hatred could be gratified only by blood.... Domitian had entered into possession of
the title and residence of Caesar.... At Rome, the Senate...decreed to [Domitian’s absent
father General] Vespasian all the honours customarily bestowed on the Emperors.... On the
Emperor and his son Titus, the Consulship was bestowed by decree; on Domitian, the office of
Praetor, with consular authority.”
217. Well does Edmunson declare: 91 “If ever Armageddon was realized in the history
of the World, it was in that second battle...between the armies of Vitellius and Vespasian,
contending for the mastery of the Roman Empire. On the one side were troops from Italy,
Spain and Portugal, Gaul, the German Rhine frontier, even from far distant Batavia, and
Britain. On the other [side, there were] legions from the Danube frontier, and, behind these,
the [Romans] Armies of Syria, Judaea, and Egypt - with auxiliaries from the furthermost East,
from the borderlands of the Euphrates and Tigris.” Cf. Revelation 17:5-18 with 18:2-10’s
‘Babylon’ and her allied ‘kings.’ Cf. too Revelation 16:16’s ‘Armageddon.’ And also cf.
Revelation 20:8’s ‘Gog and Magog’ with Ezekiel 38:2 f to 39:29.
218. In that book of Revelation, continues Edmunson, John “the Seer...saw the medley
of troops from every nation under heaven actually fighting in the streets of Rome (cf.
Revelation 17:12-18 & 19:15-20). And the scenes he witnessed, still so freshly imprinted in
his mind, are vividly reflected in the imagery of his vision.”
219. Observes Tacitus: 92 “Domitian, on the day of his taking his seat in the Senate,
made a brief and measured speech in reference to the absence of his father [Vespasian] and
brother [Titus].... Vespasian had heard of the victory of Cremona,” where forces loyal to
Vespasian had “shattered” those loyal to Vitellius. “He [Vespasian] heard an unfavourable
account of [his own son] Domitian, which represented him [Domitian] as overstepping the
limits of his age and the privileges of a son. He therefore entrusted Titus with the main
strength of the Army to complete what had got to be done in the Jewish War.
220. “Men feared the ungoverned passions of Domitian.... To pacify the feelings of
Domitian,” Titus’s friend General Mucianus “appointed Arretinus Clemens, who was closely
connected with the house of Vespasian, and who was also a great favourite with Domitian, to
the command of the Praetorian Guard.... Domitian and Mucianus prepared to set out...;
Domitian in all the hope and impatience of youth, and Mucianus ever contriving delays to
check his ardent companion who, he feared, were he to intrude himself upon the [Roman]
Army, might be led by the recklessness of youth or by bad advisers.”
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