Historical Sources — Historicist Identifications of Trumpets 1-4¶

Elliott, Horae Apocalypticae, Vol. 1¶

First Trumpet = Alaric and the Visigoths (c. 395-410 AD)¶

ELLIOTT1 2273 (Overview):

"The four first Trumpet visions, like those of the four first Seals, are connected together by certain strongly marked features of resemblance; and which are here of such a nature as to make it desirable to consider the four visions together. They depict the destructive action of a series of tempests, successively affecting the third part of the Roman earth, third part of the sea, third part of the rivers, and third part of the firmamental luminaries. By English Protestant interpreters they ha[ve been applied to the barbarian invasions]..."

ELLIOTT1 2405 (Identification):

"And, in demonstrating this, need I detail at any length the history of the five great destroyers of the Western empire, — the two first associated nearly as one in the time and scene of their devastations under the first Trumpet: — I mean of Alaric and Rhadagaisus, in the first instance; then of Genseric, Attila, Odoacer? The tale has been often repeated by expositors, as well as historians."

ELLIOTT1 2427 (Chronology):

"The era of Alaric and Rhadagaisus, — that is of the first Trumpet, — is to be considered as chiefly embracing some 10 or 12 years, from A.D. 400 to about A.D. 410; though, as the ravages of the provinces were not then discontinued, we may perhaps consider the vision before us to embrace a period somewhat longer. In that latter year the Vandals had extended their conquests to the straits of Gades: and Alaric, having accomplished his destiny, and reached in his desolating course the souther[n extremity of Italy, died]..."

ELLIOTT1 2408 (Trumpet-preparation connection):

"...the history, that the Goths armed forthwith, with threat of war against the Roman empire. — But not before there had been enacted in the empire, alike what might answer to the saints' incense-offering figured in the Apocalyptic temple, and the implied Christ-renouncing counter-worship of the men of the apostacy."

ELLIOTT1 2413 (Alaric's preparation):

"Then was a pause. The Trumpets were to be sounded specially against not the already detached Illyrian Prefecture, but against the Western Empire, against Italy, and Rome... Alaric had to prepare himself for the mighty task. 'The trumpet-angels prepared themselves to sound.' And see the wonderful manner in which this was facilitated. By the infatuation of the emperor Arcadius, he was made Master-General of the Eastern Illyricum and so furnished with arms for their [invasion]..."

Second Trumpet = Genseric/Gaiseric and the Vandals (c. 429-477 AD)¶

ELLIOTT1 2378 (Vivid description):

"2nd Trumpet. — A pause ensues. Then presently there is heard another trumpet-blast of judgment. — Now is the visitation of the Western third of the Mediterranean sea, and the islands and trans-marine province included in it; a part hitherto unscathed and safe. Behold yon giant mountain-rock, blazing with volcanic fires, that upheaved from the southernmost point of Spain near the straits of Gades, and cast into the sea, looks like Etna in its raging! Mark how the waters of the midland sea [are affected]..."

ELLIOTT1 2433 (Genseric's maritime power):

"To the Vandal Genseric was allotted the conquest of the maritime provinces of Africa, and the islands: all in short that belonged to the western empire in the Mediterranean; and which Alaric (as just alluded to) was prevented attempting by death. It belonged, I say, to Genseric; 'a name,' observes Gibbon, 'which, in the destruction of the Roman Empire, has deserved an equal rank with the names of Alaric and Attila.' It was in the year 429 that he entered on it."

ELLIOTT1 2442 (Naval devastation):

"The coasts, moreover, of Spain, and Gaul, and Italy, the latter as far up as the head of the Adriatic, were mercilessly ravaged by him. When asked by his pilot what course to steer, 'Leave the determination to the winds,' was his reply: 'they will transport us to the guilty coast, whose inhabitants have provoked the divine justice.' — Twice, on occasions alike memorable, the Roman navies, with vast preparations, were collected to destroy the Vandal power. But suddenly [they were defeated]..."

Third Trumpet = Attila and the Huns (c. 433-453 AD)¶

ELLIOTT1 2443 (Attila as "scourge of God"):

"In the mean time, and long ere the extinction of the volcano, and death of the tyrant of the sea Genseric, (which was not indeed till the year 477,) yet another plague was commissioned against the devoted empire; I mean the scourge of God, the king of the Huns, Attila. Alone of conquerors, ancient or modern, he united at this time under his sway, the two mighty kingdoms of Germany and Scythia."

ELLIOTT1 2445 (Attila as blazing meteor):

"...the baleful meteor that even then blazed in the heavens, boding ruin and war. For the first eight years from his accession (which was in A.D. 433) he had been occupied with other wars in Germany, Persia, Scythia. Then, descending on the Danube, he fixed the royal village near where it takes its great bend to the southward, not far from the modern Buda: crossed it to attack the Eastern empire; and, tracing its course downwards in blood, as far as Marcianopolis, retired not until the Eastern [empire bought peace]..."

ELLIOTT1 2882 (Star imagery):

"Attila's meteoric star is similarly represented as blazing in the Roman political firmament, its locality being just on the borders."

ELLIOTT1 2450 (Attila's death = meteor extinguished):

"Many had died, and still continued to die, that drank of the waters, through famine, disease, and pestilence. This being done, his course was to end. 'Thus far thou shalt go, and no further.' Returned from Italy, he recrossed the Danube; reached the royal village between it and the Teiss; and there, the very next year, was suddenly cut off by apoplexy. This occurred A.D. 453. So the meteor was extinct; the empire and power of the Huns broken. The woe of the third Trumpet had passed away."

Fourth Trumpet = Fall of Western Roman Empire (Odoacer, 476 AD)¶

ELLIOTT1 2392 (Sun/luminaries = government):

"4th Trumpet. — The vision has past; the fourth angel sounds. Hitherto, though its land, its sea, and its frontier river and fountains of waters have been desolated, yet the sun has still continued shining on the Western empire, as before. But now at length this too is affected. To the extent of a third part of its orb, it suffers eclipse. The shadow falls over the Western empire. Then the night supervenes. — And see the eclipsing influences act on the luminaries of the night also."

ELLIOTT1 2279 (Structural correspondence):

"There are two further coincidences that must not be omitted, as furnishing corroborative evidence of the truth of this conclusion. The one is, that as the Gothic ravages terminated in the extinction of the Western emperors and empire, so the fourth Trumpet-vision, the last of the series, depicted the partial darkening of what were the well-known symbols of rulers — the sun and the heavenly luminaries."

ELLIOTT1 2453 (The final catastrophe):

"Thus was the final catastrophe preparing, by which the western emperors and empire were to become extinct. The glory of Rome had long departed; its provinces one after another been rent from it; the territory still attached to it become like a desert; and its maritime possessions, and its fleets and commerce been annihilated. Little remained to it but the vain titles and insignia of sovereignty. And now the time was come when these too should be withdrawn. Some twenty years or more f[ollowing]..."

Barnes, Notes on the New Testament: Revelation¶

First Trumpet (BARNESREV 643):¶

"The first angel sounded. The first in order, and indicating the first in the series of events that were to follow. And there followed hail. Hail is usually a symbol of the divine vengeance, as it has often been employed to accomplish the divine purposes of punishment. Thus in Ex. ix. 23, 'And the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.'"

Second Trumpet (BARNESREV 653-654):¶

"And the second angel sounded. This, according to the interpretation proposed above, refers to the second of the four great events which contributed to the downfall of the Roman empire... A mountain is a natural symbol of strength, and hence becomes a symbol of a strong power..." "The figure here is, that as such a blazing mountain cast into the sea would, by its reflection on the waters, seem to tinge them with red, so there would be something corresponding with this in what was referred to by the symbol. It would be fulfilled if there was a fierce maritime warfare, and if in some desperate naval engagement the sea should be tinged with blood."

Third Trumpet Barnes overview (BARNESREV 628):¶

"The third angel sounds, ver. 10, 11. A great star, burning like a lamp, falls from heaven upon a third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters, and the waters become bitter, and multitudes of people die from drinking the waters."

Fourth Trumpet (BARNESREV 663):¶

"And the fourth angel sounded. The darkening of the heavenly luminaries is everywhere an emblem of any great calamity — as if the light of the sun, moon, and stars should be put out."

Trumpet-Bowl Correspondence (BARNESREV 1161):¶

"And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea. So the second trumpet (ch. viii. 8), 'And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood.'"

Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire¶

Goths (GIBBON1 1308):¶

"The emperor Decius had employed a few months in the works of peace and the administration of justice, when he was summoned to the banks of the Danube by the invasion of the Goths. This is the first considerable occasion in which history mentions that great people, who afterwards broke the Roman power, sacked the Capitol, and reigned in Gaul, Spain, and Italy. So memorable was the part which they acted in the subversion of the Western empire, that the name of Goths is frequently but improperly used [for all barbarian invaders]..."

Western Empire Fall (GIBBON1 1590):¶

"The event surpassed his own expectations and those of the world. By the most signal victories he delivered the empire from this host of barbarians, and was distinguished by posterity under the glorious appellation of the Gothic Claudius."

Schaff, History of the Christian Church¶

Fall of Western Empire (SCHAFF4 2338, SCHAFF 24972):¶

"THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE."

(SCHAFF4 5008):¶

"The ancient Roman civilization began to decline soon after the reign of the Antonines, and was overthrown at last by the Northern barbarians. The treasures of literature and art were buried, and a dark night settled over Europe."

(SCHAFF 16609):¶

"End of the Western Line in Romulus Augustulus"

Guinness, The Approaching End of the Age¶

(GUINNESS 3734):¶

"HONORIUS. Removal of seat of government from Rome to Ravenna. Revolt of Goths. Alaric commenced his ravages in Greece, 395; and in Italy, 402. Sack of Rome by Alaric, Aug. 24th, 410. Augustine."

(GUINNESS 924):¶

"And wherefore should so elaborate a prophecy, have been given about the character and doom of Rome Pagan, which was sacked by Alaric A.D. 410?"

(GUINNESS 918):¶

"Babylon, then, in this prophecy means Rome... Bellarmine and Bossuet do not attempt to deny that these predictions concern Rome... They admit it freely, but assert that they refer to Rome as a heathen city merely... and they maintain that the prophecy of the fall of Babylon, was fulfilled in the destruction of Rome, by the Goths, in the fifth century."

Cuninghame, A Dissertation on the Seals and Trumpets¶

(CUNINGHAME 406):¶

"Concluding remarks on the symbols of these Trumpets"

Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders¶

Title references found (HODGKIN 15, 2859, 6479, 12876, 19393):

"ITALY AND HER INVADERS" (Title pages of multiple volumes; content searches returned title-level results rather than body text.)

Elliott Vol. 2 — Additional¶

(ELLIOTT2 2815):¶

"It is to be remembered then, (a fact doubtless well known to most of my readers,) that on the irruption of the multitudinous Gothic barbarian hordes into the Western Roman empire, and their establishment in its several provinces in the 5th and 6th centuries, a change of the spoken language naturally and necessarily ensued."

Summary Table: Historicist Trumpet Identifications¶

Trumpet	Biblical Imagery	Exodus Parallel	Historicist Identification	Domain	Dates
1st	Hail, fire, blood on earth; 1/3 trees, all grass burnt	Plague 7 (Exo 9:23-24)	Alaric & Visigoths ravaging Western Roman provinces	Earth/land	c. 395-410 AD
2nd	Great burning mountain cast into sea; 1/3 sea blood, 1/3 creatures die, 1/3 ships destroyed	Plague 1 (Exo 7:20-21)	Genseric & Vandals — maritime conquest, naval dominance	Sea	c. 429-477 AD
3rd	Great star (Wormwood) falls on rivers/fountains; waters made bitter; many die	Jer 9:15; 23:15 (wormwood judgment)	Attila & Huns — "scourge of God," devastating inland/river regions	Rivers/waters	c. 433-453 AD
4th	1/3 sun, moon, stars smitten and darkened	Plague 9 (Exo 10:21-23)	Fall of Western Roman Empire — imperial "lights" extinguished (Odoacer, 476)	Sun/moon/stars (government)	476 AD