and his name that fat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him: and power was given unto them, over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with fword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beafts of the earth. + • The fourth feal or period (ver. 7, 8.) is diftinguished by a concurrence of evils, war, and famin, and peftilence, and wild beasts; and was proclamed by the fourth living creature, who was like an eagle, and had his ftation in the north. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse; and his name that fat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him: and power was given unto them, over the fourth part of the earth, to`kill' with fword, and with bunger, and with death, and with the beafts of the earth. Thefe are the fame four fore judgments, with which Ezekiel (XIV. 21.) threatened Jerufalem, the fword, and the famin, and the oifome beaft, and the peftilence; for (5) Voce Javare intelligendus eft Auo; ex Hebraitmo: Nam ita fumitur apud Jer. IX. 21. et XVIII. 21. Sic apud Sirachidem legimus XXXIX. 29. λίμος και Jara 05, ubi itidem Jaaro, haud dubie peftilentiam fignificat. Syrus quoque tum hic tum apud Lucamos ver tit NMD. i. e. Savares' et LXX (6) Hic de vico Thraciæ, vi- for in the oriental languages the peftilence is emphatically (5) ftiled death. These four were to destroy the fourth part of mankind; and the image is very poetical, of death riding on a pale borfe, and bell or the grave following with him, ready to fwallow up the dead corpses. This period commenceth with Maximin, who was an emperor from the north, being (6) born of barbarous parents in a village of Thrace. He was indeed a barbarian in all refpects. There was not, as an (7) hiftorian affirms, a more cruel animal upon the earth; and he was defervedly called by the name of Cyclops, Bufiris, Phalaris, and the worst of tyrants. The hiftory of his and feveral fucceeding reigns is full of wars and murders, mutinies of foldiers, and invafions of foreign armies, rebellions of fubjects, and deaths of princes. There were more than twenty emperors in the space of fifty years, and all or most of them died in war, or were murdered by their own foldiers and subjects. Befides lawful 1 patre et matre genitus. Julius Capitolin. in Maximin. Hift. Auguft. Script. VI. Edit. Salmas. p. 138. Vide etiam notas Salmas. et Cafauboni. Mag 305, το μεν γενος των ενδοτάτων Oganar nas picoCagbagwv. Max. qui quod ad genus attinet, ex Intimis Thracibus, et femibar baris erat. Herodian. Lib. 6. p. 140. Edit. H. Steph. 1581. (7) Neque enim fuit crudelius animal in terris-tam crudelis fuit, ut illum alii Cyclopem, alii Bufiridem, alii Scironem, nonnulli Phalarim, multi Typhonem, vel Gygem vocarent. Jul. Capit. ibid. p. 141. (8) Vide ; lawful emperors, there were in the reign of Gallienus (8) thirty tyrants or ufurpers, who fet up in different parts of the empire, and came all to violent and miferable ends. miferable ends. Here was fufficient employment for the word; and fuch wars and devaftations muft neceffarily produce a famin, and the famin is another diftinguishing calamity of this period. In the reign of Gallus the Scythians made fuch incurfions, that (9) not one nation fubject to the Romans was left unwafted by them, and every unwalled town, and most of the walled cities were taken by them. In the reign of Probus alfo (1) there was a great famin throughout the world; and for want of victuals the army mutinied, and flew him. An ufual confequence of famin is the peftilence, and the peftilence is the third diftinguishing calamity (8) Vide Trebell. Pollio. de triginta tyrannis. Hift. Aug. Script. VI. p. 184, &c. Edit. Salmafii. (9) ὥς: μηδὲ ἓν εθνος Ρωμαιοις ὑπήκοον απόρθητον ὑπὸ τετῶν καὶ ταλειφθήναι, πασαν δε ὡς εἴπειν ατείχιζον πολιν, και των ωχυρω μενων τείχεσι τας πλειές άλωναί. adeo quidem, ut nulla gens Romanæ ditionis ab eis non vaftata manferit, fed omnia, prope dixerim, oppida deftituta mænibus, et iifdem munitorum magna pars, capta fuerint. Zofim. in Gall. Lib. 1. Sect. 26. L of this period. This peftilence, according to (2) Zonaras, arifing from Ethiopia, while Gallus and Volufian were emperors, pervaded all the Roman provinces, and for fifteen years together incredibly exhaufted them; and fo learned a man as Lipfius declares, that he never read of any greater plague, for the space of time that it lafted, or of land that it overspread. Zofimus, fpeaking of the devaftations of the Scythians in the reign of Gallus before mentioned, farther addeth, that (3) the peftilence not lefs pernicious than the war, deftroyed whatever was left of human kind, and made fuch havoc as it had never done in former times. He faith alfo, that in the reign of Gallienus, (4) fuch a grievous peftilence as never happened at any time before, rendered the calamities inflicted by the barbarians etiam peftilens in oppidis atque vicis fubfecuta, quicquid erat humani generis reliquum, abfumfit: quæ fane nunquam fuperioribus fæculis tantam hominum ftragem ediderat. Zofim. ib. ύπο (4) λοιμος επιβρισας τας πόλε σιν, δέος επω πρότερον εν παντι τω χρόνῳ συνέβη, τας μεν των βαρβαρων συμφορας μετριωτερας απέφηνε. tanta peftis in civitati bus exorta, quanta nunquam prius ullo tempore exftiterat, calamitates a barbaris illatas leviores reddidit. Zofim. ibid. Se&. 37. (5) Ata annos incredibiliter exhaufiffe. Nec alia unquam major lues mihi leta (inquit vir nostro ævo celebris) patio temporum, five terrarum. Mede p. 446. Zonar. in Gall. & Volus. Lipfius de Conftantia. Lib. 2. Cap. 23. (3) εχ ήτίον δε τε παλαχοθεν επιβρίσαντος πολεμε, καὶ ὁ λοιμος· πολέσι τε και κωμαις επιγενόμενος, εἴ τι λελειμμενον ην ανθρώπειον γένος διέφθειρεν, έπω πρότερον εν τοις φθάσασι χρόνοις τοσαυτην ανθρωπων απώλειαν εργασαμενος, Nec minus bello, quod undique fcaturiendo velut emerferat, lues ríans more moderate. He faith afterwards too in the reign of Claudius, that (5) the peftilence feifing on the Romans as well as the barbarians, many of the army died, and alfo Claudius the emperor. Dionyfius in (6) Eufebius, treating of the fame time, mentions the war and the famin and the peftilence, as fucceeding one another in their natural order. St. Cyprian too mentions (7) all the three together, as troubling the world more at that time than at any other. He wrote also a (8) treatise upón this very pefti lence, which he intitled De mortalitate, as if he had taken the name from the prophecy which had predicted it. In short, without alleging more teftimonies, Eutropius affirms of Gallus and Volufian, that (9) their reign was remarkable only for the peftilence and difeafes and ficknefs. Orofius (1) afferts much the same thing: and Trebellius Pollio likewife (2) informs us, that (5) Αψαμενε δε το λοιμε και Ρωμαίων, απέθανον μεν πολλοί το σρατεύματος, τελευτᾳ δὲ nat Kaavdios. Sed quod in Romanos quoque peftis fævire cæpiffet, cum alii complures in exercitu mortui funt, tum etiam Claudius vivendi finem fecit. Zofim. ibid. Sect. 46. (6) Eufeb. Ecclef. Hift. Lib. 7. Cap. 22. (7) Sed enim cum dicas, plurimos conqueri quod bella (8) Vide Edit. Felli. p. 110. (9) Sola |
