It is an interesting angle of inquiry that the author of Revelation might also have applied this ‘duplication’ technique in chapter 6, where we encounter four horsemen. Are these ‘four horses’ the description of historical figures, and maybe of two historical figures instead of four? I believe so. Below I will show that probably Vespasian and Titus are the historical figures behind these four horsemen.
First of all, it’s not a mere accident that four horses make their appearance. The Latin for horse is equus, and the nobility called after the horse were called ‘equites’ (singular: ‘eques’), horsemen or knights. Vespasian and his son Titus belonged to the equites branch of Roman aristocracy.
Maybe the color of the first two horses gives an indication that the first two horsemen are the description of one and the same person. The first horse is white, and the second one is red. Coincidentally – or maybe not – the characteristic dress of the ‘eques’ was the white and red trabea. I quote Wikipedia: ‘Equites wore the trabea (a shorter, "equestrian" form of white toga or a purple-red wrap, or both) over a white tunic with two narrow vertical purple-red stripes.’ On Google you can find some fine images of the trabea.
And what about the equipment and the activity of these two first horsemen?
The white horse:
• Has a bow
• Was given a crown
• Went out conquering and to conquer.
For a full understanding of the ‘crown’ attribute, I believe we should choose a different translation for the Greek στεφανος, not a crown (a royal crown for example) but a wreath (in this case for a victorious military commander). On imperial coins Vespasian is depicted with a laurel wreath, and on p. 116 of A Companion to the Flavian Age of Imperial Rome (Andrew Zissos, editor, 2016) the Cancelleria reliefs are discussed. There we read: ‘Victory can just be seen hovering behind Vespasian holding a laurel wreath over his head for his successes in the Judean War.’
The red horse:
• Was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another
• Was given a great sword.
I believe it is not necessary to address every point in detail. The equipment and activities of the white and the red horseman are an accurate description of Vespasian as the commander-in-chief of the Romans reconquering Palestine. Maybe the bow represents his auxiliary troops (see Josephus, The Jewish War III:68 and 116), the great sword the Roman legions. To be ‘permitted to take peace from the earth’ simply means ‘to wage war’. In ancient Greek είρηνη (peace) and πολεμος (war) were strictly military opposites.
Then follow the black and the pallid horse. I believe this time the colors have nothing to do with the dress of their rider, but now they seem to depict the gloom of the situation. The black ‘eques’ has a balance in his hand to weigh the scarce wheat and barley, that are sold for famine prices. So verse 5 and 6 seem to depict the famine during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
The companion of famine is the outbreak of infectious diseases like dysentery, typhus and smallpox. The pallid color of the horse already points in this direction, and its rider’s name is θανατος, which can mean ‘death’ but also ‘deadly disease’ or ‘pestilence’. In verse 8b θανατος is translated as pestilence.
So verse 5-8a describe the two major mortal effects of the siege, famine (which kills in itself) and infectious diseases (famine's faithful companion).
During the siege Vespasian was not present anymore before the walls of Jerusalem, so it’s clear that here his son Titus is described. He had a siege wall built around Jerusalem in June 70 CE, making starvation a major element of his military strategy. Highly interesting in verse 8a is that the rider’s name is θανατος. This is the only occasion in this chapter where the Greek word ὄνομα (‘name’) is used. I hope to come back to this point later.
Table: Revelation 6:1-8a
| Verses | Characteristics | About | |
| White horse | 1-2 | bow, conqueror | Vespasian |
| Red horse | 3-4 | sword, warrior | Vespasian |
| Black horse | 5-6 | famine price for wheat and barley | Titus |
| Pallid horse | 7-8a | fatal illness/pestilence | Titus |
Above I mentioned the two witnesses = Jesus in chapter 11, and here we encountered 4 horses = 2 Roman equites = Vespasian and Titus. In my opinion this same obscuring technique has not been used incidentally but purposefully in these two fragments. It has been used to depict the major opponents (in the view of the author of Revelation) in the war of the Jews against the Romans: Jesus on one side, and Vespasian and Titus on the other. In Revelation 11 Jesus is described as having been active during the war against the Romans, and in chapter 6 we see his major Roman military opponents described in the same duplicated manner.