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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 8

Section 8 Subsection 2

Historical Exposition


 
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The following is Mr. Elliott’s summary of the phenomena of the vision. "Which," he inquires, "is the new scene of judgment? ‘The third of the rivers,’ it is said, ‘and the fountains of waters.’ It begins where yon mighty river to the North forms the ancient limit between barbarian Germany, and the Illyrian, or Middle Praefecture of the Roman Empire. Mark the portentous meteor that glares over it; like a blazing torch trailing its red line of light behind it in the Northern sky! And see, where the Teiss pouring itself into the Danube, marks the central point of the base of the Great Illyrian Praefecture; there suddenly it descends, and blazes, and taints with its sulphurous exhalations the downward course of that ancient river.

"But it was the same western third of the empire, as before, that was in this case too to taste specially of the bitterness of the woe. And mark how, in fulfilment of its mission, the meteor tracks the course of the Upper Danube, and then reaches and moves along the Rhenish frontier river of the Western Empire; blazing over and poisoning its Waters, down even to the Belgic lowlands. Thence again unquenched it rises; shoots in rapid course westward; is repelled, as if by some counter electric force, and as from a region on which it behoved not that it should permanently shed its malignant influences; then in southerly direction falls on the fountains of European waters, there where the Alpine snows are dissolving from their eternal glaciers. Wheresoever it has fallen, the rivers and their tributaries have been poisoned by it; and the dead and dying of those that drink them, appear lying on the banks. Having thus done its part, it shoots back towards the Danube; there blazes for a moment longer, and is extinct."

"In the reign of ATTILA the Huns," says Gibbon, "became the terror of the world -- a formidable barbarian, who alternately insulted and invaded the east and the west, and urged the rapid downfall of the Roman Empire." He alone among the conquering meteors, or blazing torches, of ancient or modern times, united the two mighty kingdoms of Germany and Scythia under one sceptre. Claiming to be the rightful possessor of the Sword of Mars, he asserted his divine and indefeasible claim to the dominion of the earth. He soon acquired a sacred character; and the barbarian princes confessed, in the language of devotion or flattery, that they could not presume to gaze with a steady eye, on the Divine Majesty of the King of the Huns. As supreme and sole monarch of the barbarians, he was able, when he collected his military force, to bring into the field an army of five, or according to another account, seven hundred thousand troops. When these were set in rapid motion, they constituted a power, that may be very appropriately likened to "a Great Star blazing as a torch."

The Attila-power, which prevailed from A.D. 433 to 453, was fitly designated "the Apsinthian," or Illyrian. It touched the Danube on one hand, and reached with the other, as far as the Tanais, or Don. On making peace with the Constantinopolitan power, after a ravaging war of five years to which he was stirred up by his African ally, the redoubtable GENSERIC, the eastern Catholic emperor, resigned to Attila an extensive and important territory, which stretched along the southern banks of the Danube from Belgrade to Nova, in the diocese of Thrace, a breadth of fifteen day’s journey, and embracing Naissus within the limits of his dominion. The exact location of his capital is uncertain; but supposed to have been seated between the Danube, the Teyss, and the Carpathian hills in the plains of Upper Hungary. All these regions were embraced in the great Illyrian Praefecture; so that the great Attila-star might well be styled by its Greek contemporaries of the Byzantine dominion adjacent, "THE ILLYRIAN;" and by the Spirit symbolically, "the Apsinthian."

Theodosius the younger, emperor of the east, having acknowledged Attila, the Illyrian, as the lord of the Lower Danube, the Huns were now its masters, commanding the navigation to the Black Sea; and prepared to blaze forth in any direction Providence might impel them to take. "What fortress," said the Apsinthian to the Byzantine ambassadors, "what city, in the wide extent of the Roman Empire, can hope to exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it should be erased from the earth?" They knew by experience, that these were not mere words; and as they were unequal to contend with him in war, they sought to rid themselves of this "Scourge of God," by his assassination. But "the Apsinthian" was not to be thus imperially disposed of till his mission was fulfilled; and then the Deity would lay his instrument aside in his own way. Attila was informed of the conspiracy against his life; and though he had the meaner conspirators in his hands, he disdained to punish them; but reserved his just indignation for the pious catholic prince who approved his murder. He denounced Theodosius as a wicked slave, who had clandestinely conspired against his master, "whom fortune and merit had placed above him." Nevertheless, he consented to pardon the emperor, and to maintain peace.

All the history of the Illyrian Conqueror goes to show, that his abode was in "the heaven," and that he was "a great star" therein; for he enjoyed the proud satisfaction of receiving in the same camp, the ambassadors of the eastern and western empires; and it is only to sovereign and recognized powers, that such apocalyptic "demons," are commissioned by the superior gods of their heavenlies.

The inglorious life of Theodosius was closed A.D. 450. The Apsinthian Star forthwith assumed a threatening aspect against both empires. "While mankind," says Gibbon, "awaited his decision with awful suspense, Attila sent an equal defiance to the courts of Ravenna and Constantinople, and his ministers saluted the two emperors in the same haughty terms, saying, ‘Attila my lord, and thy lord, commands thee to provide a palace for his immediate reception.’" But "the Apsinthian" despising the Romans of the east, whom he had so often vanquished, soon declared his resolution of suspending the easy conquest, till he had achieved the more glorious and important enterprize of "blazing like a torch upon the third of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;" and thus unconsciously fulfilled the mission appointed for him by the finger of God.

For this great and blazing descent upon the Western Third, the kings and nations of Germany and Scythia, from the Volga to the Danube obeyed the warlike summons of "the Scourge of God." From the royal village in the plains of Hungary, he marched to the conflux of the Rhine and the Neckar, where he was joined by the Franks. These hostile myriads were poured with resistless violence, into the Belgic provinces. The consternation of Gaul was universal. Its cities were besieged and stormed by the Apsinthian Huns, who practised their customary maxims of war. They made the waters undrinkable; so that multitudes were separated from them by death; for they were made very bitter. They involved," says Gibbon, "in the promiscuous massacre, the priests who served at the altar, and the infants, who in the hour of danger had been providentially baptized by the bishop; and the flourishing city (Metz) was delivered to the flames." From the Rhine and Moselle, Attila marched into the heart of Gaul; crossed the Seine at Auxerre; and fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans. From this city, however, he prudently retreated to the plains of Chalons. The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were marshalled here under the Illyrian, and Aetius and Theodoric, the catholic generals of the west. The results were very bitter to the contending hosts. Many of the Gothic warriors, who served in that memorable engagement informed Cassiodorius, that it was "a conflict fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody; such as could not be paralleled, either in the present or in past ages."

The number of the polloi ton anthropon, the "many of the men" who were apsinthianized in this battle of Chalons, amounted to 162,000, or, according to another account 300,000. Though Attila was put to the worse in this battle, he threatened his foe with redoubled fury. Prudence, however, prevailed over revenge; and the allied army of Latin and Gothic catholics separated, and withdrew from the plains of Chalons. Attila’s retreat beyond the Rhine confessed the last victory achieved in the name of the western empire. The Thuringians who served under "the Apsinthian," made the waters very bitter. They massacred their hostages and captives; they tortured young maidens with exquisite and unrelenting rage; their bodies were torn asunder by wild horses, or their bones were crushed under the weight of rolling wagons; and their unburied limbs were abandoned on the public roads, as a prey to dogs and vultures.

Neither the spirit, the forces, nor the reputation of the Apsinthian Star were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition. It had blazed like a torch, and imbittered the river populations of the country; but it had only partially executed its mission upon the worshippers of relics and demons. In the ensuing spring he passed the Alps into Italy with an innumerable host of barbarians. He laid siege to Aquileia, the most populous and strongest of the maritime cities of the Hadriatic. The Huns mounted the breach with irresistible fury, and the succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. After this dreadful chastisement, this blazing torch descended upon Altinum, Concordia, and Padua, which were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of his Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted without resistance to the loss of their wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency, which preserved from the flames the public, as well as private buildings; and spared the lives of the captive multitude. After this, the scorching ravages of this Great Star, blazing like a torch, overspread the rich plains of modern Lombardy, which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps and Apennine.

"It is a saying," says Gibbon, "worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had trod. Yet the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the foundation of a republic, which revived, in the feudal state of Europe, the art and spirit of commercial industry." This was Venice. Before the Apsinthian descended like a blazing torch upon the Italian province of Venetia, extending from the confines of Pannonia to the river Addua, and from the Po to the Rhaetian and Julian Alps, this fertile region was adorned with fifty cities flourishing in peace and prosperity. They also were swept by the conflagration; "all was flight," says Sigonius, "depopulation, slaughter, slavery, and despair;" but many families who fled from the sword of Attila, found a safe, though obscure refuge in the hundred islets at the extremity of the Hadriatic. Upon these they laid the foundations of the queen of that sea, which in after times became the Tyre of the feudal world; "and," says Elliott, "he who has seen the fair Venice may do well to remember that he has seen in it a memorial of the terrors and ravages of that Scourge of God, the Hun Attila."

What a terrible signification there is in the apocalyptic symbols: This great blazing star was still craving devastation and blood; and declared his resolution of carrying his victorious arms to the gates of Rome. But the Star was meteoric, and, as a meteor, must be of brief duration, and suddenly become extinct. It had been blazing and scorching among "the rivers and fountains of waters" during three years; but where was the power to extinguish it? The barbarians, who had defended Gaul, refused to march to the relief of Italy; and the succors promised by the Eastern Emperor were distant and doubtful. The only deliverance was in unqualified submission. The Western Emperor, with the Senate and people of Rome, by a solemn and suppliant embassy, embraced the salutary resolution of deprecating the wrath of "the Apsinthian." The barbarian monarch listened with favorable, and even respectful attention; and the deliverance of Italy was purchased by an immense ransom; but before he evacuated the country, he threatened to return more dreadful, and more implacable, if the treaty were not faithfully and punctually observed. But his mission being accomplished, he was of no further use. Having returned to his royal village between the Danube and the Teiss, the next year, which was A.D. 453, he was suddenly cut off by apoplexy, and this blazing "terror of the world" lay powerless in death. The empire and power of the Huns was soon after broken; and the wind of the third trumpet ceased to blow.

 

 


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