Sword
 
 
The Second Seal
Rule by the Sword

And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red.

And power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. Re 6:4

The white horse passed from view and with it passed the golden age of the Roman empire. Now appears a red horse. Its arrival marked the end of Pax Romana and the beginning of an unparalleled era of bloodshed and violence.


Commodus
An Unworthy Successor to Aurelius
commodus The good effect of adopting capable successors was the key to the prosperity and tranquility of the golden age. But, Marcus Aurelius abandoned that wise tradition and gave the throne to his dissolute son.

Commodus was a monster. He was a base, cruel, lecherous and foul mouthed youth. He grew to be a megalomaniac who believed he was the reincarnation of the god Hercules!

Having little interest in administering the empire he devoted himself to gladiator sports and his harem of 300 women.

Rule of Law Abandoned
Military Siezes Control
After an attempt on his life, he withdrew and gave the control of the empire to the Praetorian guard. This dangerous precedent would nearly prove fatal to the empire.

At the peak of his vice and infamy, Commodus was murdered by his own domestics and replaced by the honorable Pertinax. But Pertinax's hasty reforms enraged the Praetorian guard. They quickly murdered him.

Now the military seized control.

A Great Sword
A Familiar Symbol in John's Day
"The sword was a well recognized and distinctive badge among Romans, of the military profession: while its strange and unnaturally large size in the Apocalyptic figure indicated further an undue authority and unnatural use made of it." E.B. Elliot (Horae)

Before Commodus, the Senate's high authority was recognized in the choice of Emperors and the civil and military powers were separated. However, with an absentee Emperor the military dangerously grew in power.

This transition fits the prophetic symbol of putting the "great sword" of the military in the hand of the rider on the red horse.

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