The Sword in the hands of Death and his companion Hades, is not machaira, as the second seal, but rhomphaia. The former was a small sword, or dagger, borne by imperial magistrates; the latter was a different weapon -- "a large sword used by the Thracians" -- orthas rhomphaias barusiderous, strait swords heavy with iron. A very expressive symbol of what is now to be related of Death and Hades killing upon the fourth of the earth with the Thracian weapon, heavy in its fall upon all it destroyed.

About thirty-two years before the death of Alexander Severus, Septimus Severus, "the great machaira" of the second seal, was in Thrace, celebrating with military games the birthday of his younger son, Geta. Among the spectators was a young barbarian, whose gigantic stature exceeded the measure of eight feet. He earnestly solicited permission to contend for the stephan of wrestling. As the pride of discipline would have been disgraced in the overthrow of a Roman soldier by a Thracian peasant, he was matched with the stoutest followers of the camp, sixteen of whom he successively laid on the ground. Next day, having attracted Severus’ notice, he ran up to his horse, and followed him on foot, without apparent fatigue, in a long and rapid career. "Thracian," said the astonished emperor, "art thou disposed to wrestle after thy race?" "Most willingly, sir," replied the youth; and almost in a breath, overthrew seven of the strongest soldiers in the army.

This youth, whose name was Maximin, having been received into the imperial body guard, became in the reign of Alexander Severus, tribune of the fourth legion, which distinguished him as its favorite hero, by the names of Ajax and Hercules. From tribune he was successively promoted to the first military command; and, but for the fierceness of his savage origin which he still retained, he might have become the husband of the emperor’s sister.

But the favors bestowed served only to inflame the ambition of the Thracian, who deemed his fortune unequal to his merit so long as he was constrained to acknowledge a superior. Selfishly cunning, he perceived that his emperor had lost the affection of the army and how their discontent might be turned to his own exaltation. The troops listened with pleasure to his emissaries. It was time, they cried, to cast away that useless phantom of the civil power, and to elect a real soldier, who would assert the glory, and distribute among his companions the treasures of the empire. One day, as he entered the field of exercise, the Army of the Rhine saluted him as emperor, and consummated their rebellion by the murder of Alexander Severus.

Maximin, now become the straight heavy Thracian weapon, or rhomphaia, in the hand of Death and Hades, was cruel as Sheol. His cruelty is said to have been derived from fear of contempt. He was conscious that his mean Thracian origin, his savage appearance, and gross ignorance, formed a very unfavorable contrast with the amiable manners of his unfortunate predecessor. He remembered that he had often waited before the door of the haughty nobles of Rome, and had been denied admittance by the insolence of their slaves. But those who had spurned, and those who had protected the Thracian, were guilty of the same crime -- the knowledge of his original obscurity. For this crime many were put to death.

To be distinguished by birth or merit was to become an object of suspicion to his dark and sanguinary soul. Alarmed by the sound of treason, his cruelty was unbounded and unrelenting. Without a witness, without a trial, and without an opportunity of defence, Magnus, a consular senator, with four thousand of his supposed accomplices, were given over to Death and Hades. The Italian fourth, and the whole empire were infested with innumerable spies and informers. On the slightest accusation, the first of the Roman nobles, governors of provinces, and commanders of armies, were chained on the public carriages, and hurried away into his presence. Confiscation, exile, or simple death, were esteemed uncommon instances of his lenity. Some of the unfortunate sufferers he ordered to be sewed up in the hides of slaughtered animals, others to be beaten to death with clubs, and others again, to be exposed to wild beasts, for "under" these the reigning authority was commissioned "to kill." During the three years of his reign, he disdained to visit either Rome or Italy, but dragged his victims from that "fourth" by his secret police to his camp on the Rhine or Danube, the seat of his stern despotism which trampled upon every principle of human law and justice, and was supported by the avowed power of the sword.

As long as the cruelty of Maximin was confined to the illustrious senators, and bold adventurers, who in the court or army expose themselves to the caprice of circumstances, the body of the people viewed their sufferings with indifference, or perhaps with pleasure. But the tyrant’s avarice, stimulated by the insatiate desires of the soldiers, at length attacked the public property. Every city of the empire was possessed of an independent revenue, destined to purchase wheat and barley for the multitude, and so forth. By a single act of authority he acted unjustly by the wheat and barley, like the predecessors of Alexander Severus, and confiscated the whole mass of wealth to the use of the imperial treasury. The temples were stripped of their most valuable offerings of gold and silver, and the statues of gods, heroes, and emperors, were melted down, and coined into money. This retributive indignation of Heaven upon paganism by the blind instrumentality of this Thracian sword, excited tumults and massacres, as in many places the people chose rather to descend into Hades in defence of their superstition, than to behold in the midst of peace their cities exposed to the rapine of cruelty and war. Throughout the Roman world a general cry of indignation was heard, imploring vengeance on the common enemy of mankind; or, in view of the hieroglyphic of the fourth seal, on "Death" who rode them, and in "Hades who followed with him;" for these are "the common enemy of mankind."

At length a province of "the fourth" praefecture "of the earth," was driven into rebellion against this Thracian minister of Death and Hades. The procurator of Africa was a servant worthy of such a master, who considered the fines and confiscations of the rich as one of the most fruitful branches of the imperial revenue. The despair of this class roused them to arm their slaves and peasants for their protection, and to destroy the rapacious treasurer. Having assassinated him, they seized on Thysdrus, and there erected in the name of the two Gordians, the standard of rebellion against the Thracian despot. The Senate ratified their election to the imperial office, and thereby involved Rome and Italy in the guilt of treason against him. His hatred against the Senate was declared implacable; the tamest submission had not appeased his fury, the most cautious innocence would not remove his suspicions; and even the care of their own safety urged them to share the fortune of an enterprise of which, if unsuccessful, they were sure to be the first victims. They, therefore, boldly prepared for the issue, and without delay proclaimed Maximin, and his adherents, enemies of their country; and offered liberal rewards to whosoever had the courage and good fortune to destroy them.

The result of the secret sitting of the Senate soon manifested itself in the assassination of the praetorian praefect by their quaestor and tribunes, who, on their return from the camp, ran through the streets with their bloody daggers in their hands, proclaiming to the people and the soldiers the of the happy revolution! The statues of Maximin were thrown down; the authority of the two Gordians and the Senate was acknowledged by the capital; and the example of Rome was followed by the rest of Italy. Thus, the whole "fourth of the earth" was prepared for the invasion of Death and Hades, who were divinely authorized "to kill upon it with sword, famine, pestilence, and beasts of the earth."

Having assumed the reins of government, the Senate selected twenty of their number to conduct the war against Maximin. To these the defence of "the fourth of the earth" was entrusted. A number of other deputies were sent to the provincial governors of the three other praefectures, earnestly conjuring them to fly to the assistance of Rome and Italy, and reminding the nations of their ancient ties of friendship with the Roman senate and people. The reception of these deputies, and the zeal of Italy and the provinces in favor of the senate, sufficiently prove that the subjects of Maximin were reduced to that uncommon distress, in which the body of the people has more to fear from oppression than from resistance. The consciousness of melancholy truth, inspires a degree of persevering fury, seldom to be found in those civil wars which are artificially supported for the benefit of a few factious and designing leaders.

But, in a conflict with Maximin’s Mauritanian governors, the Gordians, after a reign of thirty-six days, lost both life and throne. The of this filled Rome with just but unexpected terror. Silent consternation also seized upon the senatorial assembly, till a descendant of Trajan aroused them from their fatal lethargy. He reminded them that Maximin was advancing towards Italy at the head of the military force of the empire; and that their only remaining alternative was to meet him bravely in the field, or tamely expect the tortures and ignominious death reserved for unsuccessful rebellion. He then proposed two successors to the Gordians, named Maximus and Balbinus; one to conduct the war against Maximin; the other to direct the civil government in Rome. This was readily acquiesced in; and to appease the clamors of a seditious multitude, a third Gordian, a boy of thirteen years, was invested with the ornaments and title of Caesar.

While these events were transpiring "upon the fourth of the earth," Maximin was agitated with the most furious passions. He received the of the rebellion, and the Senate’s decree against him, with the rage of a wild beast, which threatened the lives of all that ventured to approach him. Revenge was the only consolation left him, and this could only be obtained by arms. But delays are dangerous to all but omnipotence. It proved so to the redoubtable Thracian, who did not reach the frontiers of "the fourth of the earth" till the ensuing spring, A.D. 238. This delay gave the Senate’s lieutenants time for preparation; so that when his army arrived at the foot of the Julian Alps, they were dismayed by the silence and desolation that reigned on the frontiers of Italy. The villages and open towns were abandoned, the cattle driven away, and provisions removed or destroyed, the bridges broken down, nor was anything left which could afford either shelter or subsistence to an invader. Aquileia received, and withstood, the first shock of the invasion. Its citizens were animated by the extreme danger, and their knowledge of the Thracian’s unrelenting temper. Their fears for the result were unexpectedly quieted by the appearance of the heads of Maximin, his son, his praefect, and principal ministers of his tyranny, paraded on spears before the walls. They threw open the gates of the city, and the whole army fraternizing with the citizens, gave in their adhesion to the Senate and people of Rome, having obeyed its decree in assassinating the tyrant, and thereby entitling itself to the promised liberality and reward.

While the fate of Italy was being contested under the walls of Aquileia, Death and Hades were actively engaged in scenes of blood and intestine discord at Rome. Distrust and jealousy reigned in the senate; and in the temples where they assembled, every senator carried open or concealed arms. In the midst of their deliberations two veterans of the guards having intruded beyond the altar of Victory, two senators, drawing their daggers, laid them dead at the foot of the altar; and then advancing to the door, exhorted the multitude to massacre the praetorians, as the secret adherents of Maximin. Those who escaped the first fury of the tumult took refuge in the camp, which they defended against the attacks of the people, assisted by numerous bands of gladiators, the property of opulent nobles. Death and Hades held high revel here for many days, with infinite loss and confusion to the combatants on both sides. When the supply of water was cut off from the camp, the praetorians were reduced to intolerable distress; but, in their turn they made desperate sallies into the city, set fire to a great number of houses, and filled the streets with the blood of the inhabitants. The Emperor Balbinus attempted to reconcile the factions. But their animosity though smothered for a while, burnt with redoubled violence. The soldiers, detesting the senate and people, despised the weakness of a prince, who wanted either the spirit or the power to command the obedience of his subjects.

But distrust and jealousy reigned in the emperorship as well as in the senate. Maximus and Balbinus despised each other; and they both feared the praetorians as much as these turbulent military profligates hated them and the civil authority in general. The result was, that while Rome was celebrating some heathen games, a troop of desperate assassins invaded the palace, seized both "the Emperors of the Senate," as they contemptuously styled them, stripped them of their robes, dragged them in insolent triumph through the streets of the city, in which they left their bodies, mangled with a thousand wounds, exposed to the insults or to the pity of the mob.

Thus, in the space of a few months, Death and Hades had killed with the sword, six emperors. The third Gordian, officially styled Caesar, still survived. The praetorians, who asserted the authority of the sword, saluted him Augustus and Emperor, in which election the Senate and people acquiesced, rather than hazard the renewal of war in the capital. In A.D. 242, Gordian, who was only nineteen, marched his forces against the Persians; but while engaged in this war, his praetorian praefect, Philip, an Arab by birth, and a robber by original profession, was made emperor by the soldiers; and the unfortunate Gordian was sent down into Hades by the sword, which had destroyed so many of his more guilty predecessors.

In A.D. 248, Rome had attained the venerable age of one thousand years from its foundation by Romulus. Philip, whom Eusebius styles a christian (!) solemnized with infinite pomp and magnificence, the secular games, which were skilfully adapted to inspire the superstitious mind with deep and solemn reverence. To the undiscerning eye of the vulgar, Philip appeared as powerful a monarch as Hadrian or Augustus. The form of the dominion was still the same, "but the animating health and vigor were fled." This is Gibbon’s remark without alteration or condensation by me. When the animating health and vigor of bodies have departed, they are pale with the paleness of death, as the horse in this fourth seal. "The industry of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long series of oppression. The discipline of the legions was corrupted by the ambition of the emperors; the strength of the frontiers was insensibly undermined; and the fairest provinces were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of the barbarians," or "beasts of the earth," who, under the inspiration of the opener of the fourth-seal, of "the authority given to Death and Hades to kill," soon discovered the decline of the pagan empire of Rome.