The Fourth Trumpet of Revelation
The first three trumpets—hail, a mountain, and a falling star—all caused extensive damage to the Roman Empire and its people through invasions. Olympius’ murder of the families of Stilicho’s men left the Romans with no standing army in Italy. Petronius Maximus’ betrayal of Genseric’s peace treaty directly led to the Vandals’ sack of Rome. Attila’s campaign caused extensive bloodshed and further drained Rome of resources. Valentinian’s treacherous murder of General Aëtius left Rome without its last great military mind. Each of these events created the ideal conditions for the ultimate collapse of the already diminished empire.
Revelation 8:12-13
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.
13 And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
John saw the first three trumpets as earthly events—a burning hailstorm, a volcano thrown into the sea, and a great meteorite crashing to earth. The fourth trumpet was different. He wrote a depiction of celestial events similar to the sixth seal—the darkening of a third part of the sun, moon, and stars. With this prophecy, there is no earthquake, so we know it does not imply a religious event. However, the fourth trumpet signifies an event so substantial that it set human civilization into the Dark Ages for one thousand years—the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
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The final Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, took the throne at age nine in 475, though the juvenile emperor was little more than a figurehead. His father, Orestes, was the Magister Militum—the highest military officer in the empire—and Romulus’ regent. Orestes ousted the penultimate emperor, Julius Nepos, and declared his son the new emperor. Nepos fled to his home province of Dalmatia, where he continued to be recognized as the rightful Western Roman emperor by the Eastern emperor Zeno.[i]
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The Roman Empire had been deteriorating for over a century. Caracalla’s Constitutio Antoniniana, currency debasement, inflation, and the Crisis of the Third Century were among the many factors that contributed to its decline. The fifth century’s barbarian incursions only hastened the once-formidable empire’s downfall. To this point, Rome had survived, but the constant state of war drained the aging empire of men and treasure.
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In 476, the commander of the Germanic foederati in Italy, Odoacer, led a coalition force of various tribes into Italy. Not much is known about the army he compiled, though historians believe that it was comprised of many of Attila’s former allies, primarily the Heruli and Sciri. The foederati stationed in Italy, desperate for autonomy, appealed to Orestes for a land grant on the peninsula. When the de facto emperor refused their petition, the foederati responded by defecting to Odoacer. Fearing for his life, Orestes fled Ravenna for Pavia, where he was captured and executed by Odoacer loyalists.
From Pavia, the rebel army advanced on Ravenna with little resistance. With no forces remaining under his command, Romulus was powerless to defend his capital, and the five-hundred-year-old Western Roman Empire had finally reached its anti-climactic end.[ii]
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Emperor de jure Romulus Augustulus was spared from execution due to his youth. The victorious Odoacer declared himself nominally subordinate to the Eastern emperor Zeno, though both the Italian peninsula and the Illyrian territories of Dalmatia and Pannonia were firmly under his control. With the young emperor deposed, the foederati bestowed upon Odoacer the new title “King of Italy.” The short-lived reign of the Kings of Italy followed the sixth king of Revelation 17:10, the Roman emperors, and preceded the eighth king, the papal Antichrist.
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Revelation 8:12 projects the empire’s power structure onto the third part of the sun, moon, and stars. Orestes was the strongest authority in Rome’s empire, just as the sun is the strongest light in the sky. Romulus Augustulus’ ascension occurred solely because Orestes bestowed imperial authority upon him, just as the moon reflects its light from the sun. The faint light radiating from distant stars suggests a group of less powerful politicians. The Senate, which consisted of several thousand members by the fifth century, survived the empire’s fall, though with negligible significance at best. After 476, the Senate was reduced to operating as the town council of Rome.[iii]
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[i] Gibbon, Edward. 1783. “Chapter XXXVI.” In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. VI, 145-237. London: Strahan & Cadell.
[ii] Gibbon, Edward. 1783. “Chapter XXXVI.” In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. VI, 145-237. London: Strahan & Cadell.
[iii] The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2019. Senate: Roman History. November 5. Accessed August 17, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Senate-Roman-history.