Before Jerusalem Fell

Tk Nero Redivivus Myth 307
the East on leave, or ordered them to be killed if they refused. Then
he robbed the merchants, and armed all the ablest-bodied of their
slaves. A centurion, Sisenna, who was carrying clasped right hands,
the symbol of friendship, to the praetorians in the name of the army
in Syria, the pretender approached with various artifices, until Sisenna
in alarm and fearing violence secretly left the island and made
his escape. Then the alarm spread far and wide. Many came eagerly
forward at the famous name, prompted by their desire for a change
and their hatred of the present situation. The fame of the pretender
was increasing from day to day when a chance shattered it. 27
Several aspects of this record are of great interest. The foremost
is that the effort to deceive on the basis of the myth was attempted,
showing the currency of the myth early in A.D. 69. 28
The second is
that the attempt was initially successful for a brief spell. The Parthians
“were near to engaging in war, through the deception of a
pretended Nero’’! 29
Another aspect worthy of note is that the myth
caused terror in Asia, the very area to which John sent Revelation.
Finally, Tacitus notes that “the alarm spread far and wide” and that
“the fame of the pretender was increasing from day to day.” Thus,
here a significant and dangerous political and military impact is
briefly made by the myth in the empire prior to A.D. 70.
Suetonius records that immediately after the death of Nero on
June 9, A.D. 68, and for some time beyond, a number of people used
to expect and were prepared for Nero’s return: “Yet there were some
who for a long time decorated his tomb with spring and summer
flowers, and now produced his statues on the rostra in the fringed
toga, and now his edicts, as if he were still alive and would shortly
return and deal destruction to his enemies. ”3°
If Revelation was written prior to A.D. 70 could not John have
employed these things ex concessti? And since he was a prophet, could
he not have made use of the coming widespread expectation? These
considerations alone render the Nero Redivivti.s myth virtually useless
as a tool to establishing a late date for Revelation.
27. Tacitus, Hi.rtones 2:8.
28. Interestingly, but not convincingly, Weigall suggests of this episode that it may
have been Nero himselfl “It seems to me not at all impossible that he was really Nero,
who had recovered from the wound .” (Arthur Weigall, Nero: Emperor of Rome
[London: Butterworth, 1933], p. 298).
29. Tacitus, Hi.itor-ies 1:2.
30. Suetonius, Nero 57.