Revelation 8-
VERSE 12. And
the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the
third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third
part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and
the night likewise.
Excerpt from Daniel
and Revelation by Uriah Smith 1897
We understand that
this trumpet symbolizes the career of Odoacer, the barbarian monarch who was so
intimately connected
p 488 -- with
the downfall of Western Rome. The symbols sun, moon, and stars - for
they are undoubtedly here used as symbols - evidently denote the great
luminaries of the Roman government, - its emperors, senators, and consuls.
Bishop Newton
remarks that the last emperor of Western Rome was Romulus, who in derision was
called Augustulus, or the "diminutive Augustus." Western Rome
fell A. D. 476.
Still, however,
though the Roman sun was extinguished, its subordinate luminaries shone faintly
while the senate and consuls continued. But after many civil reverses and
changes of political fortune, at length, A. D. 566, the whole form of the
ancient government was subverted, and Rome itself was reduced from being the
empress of the world to a poor dukedom tributary to the Exarch of Ravenna.
Under the heading,
"Extinction of the Western Empire, A. D. 476 or A. D.
479," Elder J. Litch (Prophetic
Exposition, Vol. II, pp. 156-160) quotes from Mr. Keith as
follows: - "The unfortunate Augustulus
was made the instrument of his own disgrace; and he signified his resignation
to the senate; and that assembly, in their last act of obedience to a Roman
prince, still affected the spirit of freedom and the forms of the constitution.
An epistle was addressed, by their unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno, the
son-in-law and successor of Leo, who had lately been restored, after a short
rebellion, to the Byzantine throne. They solemnly 'disclaim the necessity or
even the wish of continuing any longer the imperial succession in Italy; since
in their opinion the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and to
protect, at the same time, both the East and the West. In their own name, and
in the name of the people, they consent that the seat of universal empire shall
be transferred from Rome to Constantinople; and they basely renounce the right
of choosing their master, the only vestige which yet remained of the authority
which had given laws to the world.'
"The power and
glory of Rome as bearing rule over any nation, became extinct. The name alone
remained to the queen of nations. Every token of royalty disappeared from the
imperial city. She who had ruled over the nations sat in the
p 489 -- dust,
like a second Babylon, and there was no throne where the Caesars had reigned.
The last act of obedience to a Roman Prince which that once august assembly
performed, was the acceptance of the resignation of the last emperor of the
West, and the abolition of the imperial succession in Italy. The sun of Rome
was smitten....
"A new
conqueror of Italy, Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, speedily arose, who
unscrupulously assumed the purple, and reigned by right of conquest. 'The
royalty of Theodoric was proclaimed by the Goths (March 5, A. D. 493), with the
tardy, reluctant, ambiguous consent of the emperor of the East.' The imperial
Roman power, of which either Rome or Constantinople had been jointly or singly
the seat, whether in the West or the East, was no longer recognized in Italy,
and the third part of the sun was smitten, till it emitted no longer the
faintest rays. The power of the Caesars was unknown in Italy; and a Gothic king
reigned over Rome.
"But though the
third part of the sun was smitten, and the Roman imperial power was at an end
in the city of the Caesars, yet the moon and the stars still shone, or
glimmered, for a little longer in the Western empire, even in the midst of
Gothic darkness. The consulship and the senate ["the
moon and the stars"] were not abolished by Theodoric. 'A Gothic historian
applauds the consulship of Theodoric as the height of all temporal power and
greatness;' - as the moon reigns by night, after the setting of the sun. And
instead of abolishing that office, Theodoric himself 'congratulates those
annual favorites of fortune, who, without the cares, enjoyed the splendor of
the throne.'
"But in their
prophetic order, the consulship and the senate of Rome met their fate, though
they fell not by the hands of Vandals or of Goths. The next revolution in Italy
was in subjection to Belisarius, the general of Justinian, emperor of the East.
He did not spare what barbarians had hallowed. 'The Roman Consulship
Extinguished by Justinian, A. D. 541,' is the title of the last paragraph of
the fortieth chapter of Gibbon's History
of the Decline and Fall of Rome. 'The succession of the consuls finally
ceased in the thirteenth year
p 490 -- of
Justinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of
a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom.'
The third part of
the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the
stars. In the political firmament of the ancient world, while under the reign
of imperial Rome, the emperorship, the consulate, and the senate shone like the
sun, the moon, and the stars. The history of their decline and fall is brought
down till the two former were 'extinguished,' in reference to Rome and ltaly,
which so long had ranked as the first of cities and of countries; and
finally, as the fourth trumpet closes, we see the 'extinction of that
illustrious assembly,' the Roman senate. The city that had ruled the world, as
if in mockery of human greatness, was conquered by the eunuch Narses, the
successor of Belisarius. He defeated the Goths (A. D. 552), achieved 'the
conquest of Rome,' and the fate of the senate was sealed."
Elliott (Horae Apocalypticae, Vol. I, pp.
357-360) speaks of the fulfilment of this portion of the prophecy in
the extinction of the Western empire, as follows: -
"Thus was the
final catastrophe preparing, by which the Western emperors and empire were to
become extinct. The glory of Rome had long departed; its provinces one after
another had been rent from it; the territory still attached to it become like a
desert; and its maritime possessions and its fleets and commerce been
annihilated. Little remained to it but the vain titles and insignia of
sovereignty. And now the time was come when these too were to be withdrawn.
Some twenty years or more from the death of Attila, and much less from that of
Genseric (who, ere his death, had indeed visited and ravaged the eternal city
in one of his maritime marauding expeditions, and thus yet more prepared the
coming consumination), about this time, I say, Odoacer, chief of the Heruli, -
a barbarian remnant of the host of Attila, left on the Alpine frontiers of
Italy, - interposed with his command that the name and
the office of Roman emperor of the West, should be abolished. The
authorities bowed in submission to him. The last phantom of an emperor - one
whose name, Romulus Augustus, was singularly calculated to bring in
contrast before the reflective
p 491 --
(picture not
included)
p 492 -- mind
the past glories of Rome and its present degradation - abdicated; and the
senate sent away the imperial insignia to Constantinople, professing to the
emperor of the East that one emperor was sufficient for the whole of the
empire. Thus of the Roman imperial sun, that third which appertained to the
Western empire was eclipsed, and shone no more. I say, Thatthird of its
orb which appertained to the Western empire; for the Apocalyptic fraction is
literally accurate. In the last arrangement between the two courts, the whole
of the Illyrian third had been made over to the Eastern division.
Thus in the West 'the extinction of the empire' had taken place; the night had
fallen.
"Notwithstanding
this, however, it must be borne in mind that the authority of the Roman name
had not yet entirely ceased. The senate of Rome continued to assemble as usual.
The consuls were appointed yearly, one by the Eastern emperor, one by Italy and
Rome. Odoacer himself governed Italy under a title (that of patrician)
conferred on him by the Eastern emperor. And as regarded the more distant
Western provinces, or at least considerable districts in them, the tie which
had united them to the Roman empire was not altogether severed. There was still
a certain, though often faint, recognition of the supreme imperial authority.
The moon and the stars might seem still to shine on the West with a dim
reflected light. In the course of the events, however, which rapidly followed
one on the other in the next half century, these, too, were extinguished.
Theodoric, the Ostrogoth, on destroying the Heruli and their kingdom at Rome
and Ravenna, ruled in Italy from A. D. 493 to 526 as an independent sovereign;
and on Belisarius's and Narses's conquest of Italy from the Ostrogoths (a
conquest preceded by wars and desolations in which Italy, and above all its
seven-hilled city, were for a time almost made desert), the Roman senate was
dissolved, the consulship abrogated. Moreover, as regards the barbaric princes
of the Western provinces, their independence of the Roman imperial power became
now more distinctly averred and understood. After above a century and a half of
calamities unexampled almost, as Dr. Robertson most truly represents it, in the
history of nations,
p 493 -- the
statement of Jerome, - a statement couched under the very Apocalyptic
figure of the text, but prematurely pronounced on the first taking of Rome by
Alaric, - might be considered as at length accomplished: 'Clarissimum
terrarumlumen extinctum est,' The world's glorious sun has been
extinguished;' and that, too, which our own poet has expressed, still under the
same beautifully appropriate Apocalyptic imagery, -
'She saw her glories
star by star expire,'
till not even a
single star remained, to glimmer on the vacant and dark night."
The fearful ravages
of these barbarian hordes, who, under their bold but cruel and desperate
leaders, devastated Rome, are vividly portrayed in the following spirited
lines:
"And then a
deluge of wrath it came,
And the nations
shook with dread;
And it swept the
earth, till its fields were flame,
And piled with the
mingled dead.
Kings were rolled in
the wasteful flood,
With the low and
crouching slave,
And together lay, in
a shroud of blood,
The coward and the
brave."
Fearful as were the
calamities brought upon the empire by the first incursions of these barbarians,
they were comparatively light as contrasted with the calamities which were to
follow. They were but as the preliminary drops of a shower before the torrent
which was soon to fall upon the Roman world. The three remaining trumpets are
overshadowed with a cloud of woe, as set forth in the following verses.
*******
More history and
it's NOT always easy to read history as such, at least not for me. I'm trying
to comprehend how it all falls into place, as I'm sure whoever else may be
reading this is doing.
Summing it up - Rome
Fell.
Revelation 8:12 -
And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and
the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the
third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it,
and the night likewise.
Rome - the great
empire was in its great decline.
History unfolding
through time and it all connects.
May GOD help us to
see! It's so easy to be blind, to not comprehend.
All by the love of
our SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD.
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