One of the newer ideas in my wanderings has been that the Empty Tomb is built around (from Atwill), a single story that was dismembered and distributed into the four Gospels. I have explored the Thesis that this original story was written by Pliny the Younger and/or Tacitus with some level of cooperation. Tacitus certainly wrote - or provided the material for - large parts of the NT, especially Acts. It's there, rather low hanging fruit and easy to see if you take the chance. It gets interesting when you delve into the arrangement of details centered on Otho. Verginius Rufus figures greatly in this as the "Empty Tomb" involves VR leaving out the back door of his house when the soldiers descend on his place to give him the Imperial Throne.
Otho is variously described as buried and burned after his death with a small "Empty Tomb" built for him. For our purposes, we may examine the oddities of "Two Swords". This idea is found in Luke:
Luke 22: 35 - 38 (RSV):
[35] And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing."
[36] He said to them, "But now, let him who has a purse take it, and likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one.
[37] For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me, `And he was reckoned with transgressors'; for what is written about me has its fulfilment."
[38] And they said, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And he said to them, "It is enough."
Suetonius, 12 Caesars, "Otho":
"When he had thus made his preparations and was now resolved upon death, learning from a disturbance which meantime arose that those who were beginning to depart and leave the camp were being seized and detained as deserters, he said "Let us add this one more night to our life" (these were his very words), and he forbade the offering of violence to anyone. Leaving the door of his bedroom open until a late hour, he gave the privilege of speaking with him to all who wished to come in. After that, quenching his thirst with a draught of cold water, he caught up two daggers, and having tried the point of both of them, put one under his pillow. Then closing the doors, he slept very soundly. When he at last woke up at about daylight, he stabbed himself with a single stroke under the left breast; and now concealing the wound, and now showing it to those who rushed in at his first groan, he breathed his last and was hastily buried (for such were his orders) in the thirty-eighth year of his age and on the ninety-fifth day of his reign..."
Plutarch provides some very intersting commentary from Otho:
"It was now evening, and being thirsty, he drank a little water. He had two swords, and after examining the blade of each for a long time, he laid one of them aside, but put the other under his arm, and then called his servants. These he addressed kindly, and distributed money to them, more to one and less to another, not as though lavish with what was no longer to be his, but with strict regard to moderation and the claims of merit. After sending the servants away, he betook himself to rest for the remainder of the night, and slept so soundly that his chamberlains heard his heavy breathing. Just before dawn he called a freedman with whom he had arranged for the departure of the senators, and bade him learn how they fared. And when he was told that all of them had what was needful for their journey, "Go thou, then," he said to the freedman, "and show thyself to the soldiers, unless thou wishest them to put thee to a miserable death for helping me to die." Then, when the man had gone out, with both hands he held his sword upright beneath him, and fell upon it, giving but a single groan as he felt the pang. The servants outside heard his groan and raised a wailing cry, and at once the whole camp and the city were filled with lamentation. The soldiers, with loud cries, burst in at the door, and then bewailed their emperor, full of anguish, and reviling themselves because they had not watched over him and prevented him from dying in their behalf. Not one of his followers went away, although the enemy were near, but after attiring the body and preparing a funeral pyre for it, they escorted it thither with military honours, and full of exultation were those who won the privilege of carrying the bier. Of the rest, some embraced the emperor's body and kissed his wound, others grasped his hands, and others still made him their obeisance at a distance. There were some, too, who first put their torches to the pyre and then slew themselves, not, so far as could be known, because they were either indebted to the dead for favours, or fearful of punishment at the hands of the victor. Nay, it would seem that no king or tyrant was ever possessed by so dire and frenzied a passion for ruling as was that of these soldiers for being ruled and commanded by Otho; not even after his death did their yearnings for him leave them, nay, it abode with them until it finally changed into an incurable hatred for Vitellius.
...
Well, then, the rest of the story is now in place. They buried the remains of Otho, and made a tomb for them which neither by the great size of its mound nor by the boastfulness of its inscription could awaken jealousy. I saw it when I was at Brixillum. It is a modest memorial and the inscription on it, in translation, runs thus: "To the memory of Marcus Otho."
Of Verginius Rufus, Plutarch, continuing...:
"As for his soldiers, when Pollio, their remaining prefect, ordered them to swear allegiance at once to Vitellius, they were incensed; and when they learned that some of the senators were still there, they let all of them go except Verginius Rufus, and him they annoyed by going to his house in military array and inviting him again, and even urging him, to assume the imperial power, or to go on an embassy in their behalf. But Verginius thought it would be madness for him to accept the imperial dignity now, when they were defeated, after refusing it before, when they were victorious, and as for going on an embassy to the Germans, he feared to do so, since they felt that he had often done them violence beyond all reason; and so he stole away unobserved by another door.
Thus, the Joke of the Empty Tomb. You can play Match-'em-Up to your heart's content here but plz note that, as always there is supporting symbolism if you desire:
John 19:34 (RSV):
[34] But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
The three Descriptions of those Crucified: Galba, with head bandages (Soudarian) separated from the body bandages. Otho, defeated at Bedriacum near the river Po. Vitellius, hated above all, given vinegar on a hyssop stick, symbolizing Vitellius' favorite homosexual Asiaticus, whom Vitellius found at a bazaar selling Posca some time after Asiaticus had left Vitellius.
CW