30-70AD Catalogue of World Disasters

Adapted from Catalogue of World Disasters Demonstrating Christ’s Kingdom and Coming in Vengeance upon the Roman World by Kurt Simmons, The Sword & The Plow, Newsletter of the Bimillennial Preterist Association, Vol. XIV, No. 3 – March 2011, http://preteristcentral.com

Catalogue of World Disasters Demonstrating

Christ’s Kingdom and Coming in Vengeance upon the Roman World

Year Event in Roman Empire

AD 60 Revolt of Britons under Queen Boudicca; one hundred

sixty-thousand Romans and Britons slain:

“They hung up naked the noblest and most

distinguished women and then cut off their breasts

and sewed them to their mouths, in order to make the

victims appear to be eating them; afterwards they

impaled the women on sharp skewers lengthwise

through the entire body. All this they did to the

accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets and wanton

behavior, not only in all their other sacred places, but

particularly in the grove of Andate. This was their

name for Victory, and they regarded her with most

exceptional reverence.” Dio Cassius, LXII, vii

The Lycus valley and cities of Pergamum, Laodicea, and

Collosse destroyed by earthquakes. Tacitus, Annals, XIV,

xxvii

AD 61 Pestilence in Asia and Ephesus. R.H. Charles,

Revelation, New International Critical Commentary, Vol.

I, 155

AD 62 Romans defeated by Volageses, king of the Parthians;

temporarily lose Armenia. Tacitus, Annals, XV, xvii.

Two hundred grain-ships destroyed by storm in the

harbor at Ostia; one hundred more destroyed by fire

while navigating the Tiber bringing grain to Rome.

Tacitus, Annals, XV, xviii

The gymnasium in Rome was struck by lightning and

burned to the ground, reducing a statute of Nero which it

contained to a shapeless lump of bronze. Tacitus,

Annals, XV, xxii

A Great famine in Armenia and Palestine. R.H. Charles,

Revelation, New International Critical Commentary, Vol.

I, 155

Plautius Silvanus quells uprisings among the Sarmatae.

Henderson, Bernard W., The Life and Principate of the

Emperor Nero, p. 225

AD 63 Nero’s wife, Poppaea, gives birth to a daughter, who died

in less than four months. This child represented the last

of Caesarean blood. With the death of Nero, the blood of

the Caesars would thus perish from earth. Tacitus,

Annals, XV, xxiii

On the 5th of February, 63, the city of Pompeii was

nearly engulfed by an earthquake. In 79 it would be

completely buried by Vesuvius. Tacitus, Annals, XV,

xxii; Josephus, Ant., XX, vii, 2

Resumption of war with Parthians. Tacitus, Annals, XV,

xxiv

AD 64 The burning of Rome and almost the complete

destruction of the city. Rome was divided into 14

regions, of which four remained intact, three were leveled

to the ground; in the other seven nothing survived but a

few dilapidated houses. Tacitus, Annals, XV, xl

Revolt of the gladiators in the town of Praeneste; Tacitus,

Annals, XV, xlvi.

A huge naval disaster. Nero ordered the fleet to return to

Campania by a given date, with no allowance for hazards

of the sea. The helmsmen therefore, in spite of a raging

storm, put out from port and were destroyed. Tacitus,

Annals, XV, xlvi

Conspiracy to assassinate Nero and place Piso upon the

throne is discovered; Nero begins a reign of terror –

Lucan, Seneca, and many of Rome’s leading citizens

suffer death over several years in a general political

purge. Tacitus, Annals, XV, lxviii-lxxii

AD 65 A fire at Lyons, France, destroyed most of the colony; the

disaster was so pronounced, Seneca devoted a letter to the

fire, declaiming the fickleness of fortune and the

transitory nature of life. Epistle XCI

Pestilence decimates Rome; Suetonius gives the number

of those cut down by the plague at thirty-thousand. The

pestilence was followed by a hurricane in Campania:

“Upon this year, disgraced by so many deeds of

shame, Heaven also set its mark by tempest and by

disease. Campania was wasted by a whirlwind

[hurricane], which far and wide wrecked the farms,

the fruit trees, and the crops, and carried its fury to

the neighbourhood of the capital, where all classes of

men were being decimated by a deadly epidemic.

No outward sign of a distempered air was visible.

Yet the houses were filled with lifeless bodies, the

streets with funerals. Neither sex nor age gave

immunity from danger; slaves and the free-born

populace alike were summarily cut down, amid the

laments of their wives and children, who, themselves

infected while tending or mourning the victims, were

often thrown upon the same pyre.” Tacitus, Annals,

XVI, xiii.

AD 66 Vinician conspiracy to assassinate Nero discovered at

Breventium; Corbulo and the brothers Scribonius

compelled to commit suicide for doubtful participation in

the plot. Tactius, Annals, Dio Cassius, LXIII, xvii;

Seutonius, Nero, xxxvi

Revolt of Jews; destruction of fifth legion under Cestius.

Josephus, War. II, vii-xx

Fifty-thousand Jews slain in Alexandria; twenty-thousand

Jews slain in Caesarea. Syria turned into an armed camp,

and Jews and Greeks slaughter one another, giving vent

to long standing hatred between them. Josephus

describes Syria as being filled with heaps of dead bodies.

Josephus, War, II, xviii

AD 68 Beginning this year, the world saw five emperors in the

space of one year and twenty-two days – Nero, Galba,

Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian. Dio Cassius, LXVI, xvii

Grain shortage caused panic in Rome, aggravated by

Nero’s use of grain ships to import sand for his arena.

Suetonius, Nero, XLV

A sudden eruption of the sea inundated Lycia, a port city

in Turkey. Dio Cassius, LXIII, xvii; Renen, Le Antichrist,

IV, clxv

Julius Vindex, leads revolt against Nero; 20,000 slain at

Vesontio, Gaul. Vindex commits suicide. Dio Cassius,

LXIII, xxiv

Galba declared emperor by Roman senate; Nero decreed

a public enemy; commits suicide (June 9). Dio Cassius,

LXIII, 29; Suetonius, Nero, VI, lxvii-ix

Galba sentences seven thousand soldiers to death for their

part in a mutiny under Nymphidius, who attempted to

persuade the praetorians to proclaim him Caesar in place

of Galba; rest of mutinous troops decimated (every tenth

man beaten to death with rods). Dio Cassius, LXIII, iii;

Tacitus, Histories, I vi

AD 69 Otho declared emperor by praetorian guard; Galba

assassinated (Jan. 15); troops loot, and plunder city,

murdering and killing at will; Otho was described as

being carried to the capital over heaps of dead bodies

while the forum still reeked with blood. Tacitus,

Histories, I, xlvii

Vitellius declared emperor in Germany; forces under

Valens march from Germany to Italy, looting and

extorting money as they go. Massacre of four thousand

citizens at Divodurum. Tacitus, Histories, I, lxiii, lxvi

Vitellius’ forces under Caecina in route to Italy plunder

the Helvetii, destroying towns, and butchering thousands.

Tacitus, Histories, I, lxviii

Rhoxolani (Sarmatians) invade province of Moesia.

Tacitus, Histories, I, lxxix

Tiber floods; men are swept to death; tenements collapse,

killing occupants; famine ensues due to general

conditions and inability of grain ships to navigate Tiber.

Tacitus, Histories, I, lxxxvi

Otho’s fleet sailed up the north-west coast like a pirate

fleet, ravaging and murdering, burning, wasting, and

spoiling cities. Tacitus, Histories, II, xii

The Riviera town of Albintimulium (Ventimiglia), on the

frontier between France and Italy, was sacked; citizens

tortured. Tactitus, Histories, II, xiii

Forty-thousand die in battles between Vitellius and Otho

near Bedriacum; dead left unburied, were viewed almost

forty days later by Vitellius who took joy at the ghastly

sight. Dio Cassius, LXIV, x

Otho commits suicide (April 16); Vitellius declared

emperor by Roman senate. The victorious troops of

Vitellius plunder Italy:

“But the distress of Italy was now heavier and more

terrible than that inflicted by war. The troops of Vitellius,

scattering among the municipalities and colonies,

indulged in every kind of robbery, theft, violence and

debauchery. Their greed and venality knew no

distinction between right and wrong; they respected

nothing, whether sacred or profane. There were cases too

where, under the disguise of soldiers, men murdered their

personal enemies; and the soldiers in their turn, being

acquainted with the country, marked out the best-stocked

farms and the richest owners for booty or destruction, in

case any resistance was made. The generals were subject

to their troops and did not dare to forbid them.” Tacitus,

Histories, II, lvi; Loeb. ed.

Revolt to liberate Gallic provinces; Aeduan cantons

plundered. Tacitus, Histories, II, lxi

Leading citizens ruined; whole communities devastated,

providing for Vitellius’ banquets and sixty thousand

soldiers in route to Rome. Tacitus, Histories, II, lxii;

lxxxvii

Colony of Taurini burned by mutinous soldiers. Tacitus,

Histories, II, lxvi.

Vespasian declared emperor in Syria (July) while making

war against Jews. Josephus, Wars, IV, x

Vitellius’ soldiers massacre unarmed civilians seven

miles outside of Rome. Tacitus, Histories, II, lxxxiii

Upon entering Rome, all military discipline is abandoned;

Vitellius’ troops spread over the city, lodging wherever

they liked and doing whatever mischief they pleased;

inactivity, debauchery and unhealthy conditions result in

disease and many deaths. Tacitus, Histories, II, lxxxviii,

xciii

AD 70 Vespasian’s forces invade Italy; Vicetia, birthplace of

Caecina taken; Verona occupied. Antonius gives troops

license to plunder civilians in the district around

Cremona. Tacitus, Histories, III, xv

City of Cremona surrenders; burned; fifty-thousand

perished. The soil was so infected by blood of slain, army

forced to move three miles away to avoid danger of

pestilence. Dio Cassius, LXIV, xv; Tacitus, Histories, III,

xxxiv-v

Venutius, the king consort, leads British to depose Queen

Cartimandua for adultery and attempting to install her

lover in the throne; the throne was left to Venutius; the

war to the Romans. Tacitus, Histories, III, xlv

Germans, Gauls, and Celts revolt; Dio Casius mentions

one battle where the river was dammed with the bodies of

the fallen. Dio Cassius LXV, iii; Tacitus, Histories, III,

xlvi; Josephus, Wars, Preface, ii; VII, iv

Dacians (Sythians) invade Mysia. Josephus, Wars,

______________

The Destruction of Jerusalem

Preface, ii; VII, iv; Tacitus, Histories, III, xlvi

Vespasian suppresses revolt in Pontus. Tacitus, Histories,

III, xlvii-iii

Vespasian’s brother, Flavius Sabinus, besieged in temple

of Jupiter Capitolinus by soldiers of Vitellus; capital

burned and Sabinus murdered. A.D. 70 thus saw the

destruction of the two greatest temples in the world –

Jerusalem and Rome. Tacitus, Histories, III lxxi-ii

Civil war reaches city of Rome; fifty-thousand slain in

siege; city taken; Vitellius murdered (Dec. 22). Dio

Cassius, LXIV, xix; Tacitus, Histories, III, lxxxxv

Cologne and Mainze fall to German rebels. Tacitus,

Histories, lix

Fort at Vetera besieged; four thousand slaughtered by the

barbarians after surrendering under promises of security;

those who escaped back to the camp were burned alive by

Germans. Tacitus, Histories, IV, lx

Germany was lost; all Roman forts burned, saved Mainze

and Vendonissa. Tactius, Histories, IV, lxi

Spring AD 70 – Eight legions march into Germany and

Gaul from Italy, one more from Britain and two from

Spain, to retake for the empire. Tacitus, Histories, IV,

lxviii

Citizens of Cologne, loyal to Rome, massacre German

soldiers quartered among them. The famous cohort at

Zulpich was invited to a banquet where wine flowed

freely; while buried in slumber in their cups, the doors of

the banquet house were barred fast and burned to the

ground upon them. Tacitus, Histories, IV, lxxix

Jerusalem destroyed; its temple burned to the ground;

city’s foundations dug up. Josephus, Wars, VI, ix