Galba

Now, a common starting point for these emperors begins with Julius Caesar, and they see Nero as the sixth.

And so they name Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, who was seen as the king who is, and then Galba, who must remain only a little while.

And Galba did rule for only about seven months, and so it does fit the phrase only a little while.

This interpretation supports the view that Revelation was written during the reign of Nero before Jerusalem's destruction in AD 70.

And the primary strength of this view is that John's first readers would have naturally associated the seven mountains with Rome and the seven kings with Roman rulers.

End footnote.

did with the lydians after he had taken sardis their chief city and had at his mercy the captured croesus their fabulously rich king when news was brought to him that the people of sardis had rebelled it would have been easy for him to reduce them by force but being unwilling either to sack such a fine city or to maintain an army there to police it he thought of an unusual expedient for reducing it he established in it brothels taverns and public games and issued the proclamation that the inhabitants were to enjoy them he found this type of garrison so effective that he never again had to draw the sword against the lydians these wretched people enjoyed themselves inventing all kinds of games so that the latins have derived the word from them and what we call pastimes they call ludi as if they meant to say not all tyrants have manifested so clearly their intention to effeminize their victims but in fact what the aforementioned despot publicly proclaimed and put into effect most of the others have pursued secretly as an end it is indeed the nature of the populace whose density is always greater in the cities to be suspicious toward one who has their welfare at heart and gullible toward one who fools them do not imagine that there is any bird more easily caught by decoy nor any fish sooner fixed on the hook by wormy bait than are all these poor fools neatly tricked into servitude by the slightest feather passed so to speak before their mouths truly it is a marvellous thing that they let themselves be caught so quickly at the slightest tickling of their fancy plays farces spectacles gladiators strange beasts medals pictures and other such opiates these were for ancient peoples the bait toward slavery the price of their liberty the instruments of tyranny by these practices and enticements the ancient dictators so successfully lulled their subjects under the yoke that the stupefied peoples fascinated by the pastimes and vain pleasures flashed before their eyes learned subservience as navely but not so creditably as little children learn to read by looking at bright picture-books roman tyrants invented a further refinement they often provided the city wards with feasts to cajole the rabble always more readily tempted by the pleasure of eating than by anything else the most intelligent and understanding amongst them would not have quit his soup-bowl to recover the liberty of the republic of plato tyrants would distribute largess a bushel of wheat a gallon of wine and a sesterce footnote a roman coin semis half tertius third of variable value originally of silver later of bronze and then everybody would shamelessly cry long live the king the fools did not realize that they were merely recovering a portion of their own property and that their ruler could not have given them what they were receiving without having first taken it from them a man might one day be presented with a sesterce and gorge himself at the public feast lauding tiberius and nero for handsome liberality who on the morrow would be forced to abandon his property to their avarice his children to their lusts his very blood to the cruelty of these magnificent emperors without offering any more resistance than a stone or a tree stump the mob has always behaved in this way eagerly open to bribes that cannot be honourably accepted and dissolutely callous to degradation and insult that cannot be honourably endured nowadays i do not meet anyone who on hearing mention of nero does not shudder at the very name of that hideous monster that disgusting and vile pestilence yet when he died when this incendiary this executioner this savage beast died as vilely as he had lived the noble roman people mindful of his games and his festivals were saddened to the point of wearing mourning for him thus wrote cornelius tacitus in his histories book one chapter four which cover the period sixty nine to ninety six a d from the fall of nero to the crowning of nerva a competent and serious author and one of the most reliable this will not be considered peculiar in view of what the same people had previously done at the death of julius caesar who had swept away their laws and their liberty in whose character it seems to me there was nothing worth while for his very liberality which is so highly praised was more baneful than the cruellest tyrant who ever existed because it was actually this poisonous amiability of his that sweetened servitude for the roman people after his death that people still preserving on their palates the flavor of his banquets and in their minds the memory of his prodigality vied with one another to pay him homage they piled up the seats of the forum for the great fire that reduced his body to ashes and later raised a column to him as the father of his people footnote suetonius life of caesar paragraphs eighty four to eighty eight and foot such was the inscription on the capitol they did him more honor dead as he was than they had any right to confer upon any man in the world except perhaps on those who had killed him they didn't even neglect these roman emperors to assume generally the title of tribune of the people partly because this office was held sacred and inviolable and also because it had been founded for the defence and protection of the people and enjoyed the favour of the state by this means they made sure that the populace would trust them completely as if they merely used the title and did not abuse it today there are some who do not behave very differently they never undertake an unjust policy even one of some importance without prefacing it with some pretty speech concerning public welfare and common good you well know o longa this formula which they use quite cleverly in certain places although for the most part to be sure there cannot be cleverness where there is so much impudence the kings of the assyrians and even after them those of the medes showed themselves in public as seldom as possible in order to set up a doubt in the minds of the rabble as to whether they were not in some way more than a man and thereby to encourage people to use their imagination for those things which they cannot judge by sight thus a great many nations who for a long time dwelt under the control of the assyrians became accustomed with all this mystery to their own subjection and submitted the more readily for not knowing what sort of master they had or scarcely even if they had one all of them fearing by report some one they had never seen the earliest kings of egypt rarely showed themselves without carrying a cat or sometimes a branch or appearing with fire on their heads masking themselves with these objects and parading like workers of magic by doing this they inspired their subjects with reverence and admiration whereas with people neither too stupid nor too slavish they would merely have aroused it seems to me amusement and laughter it is pitiful to review the list of devices that early despots used to establish their tyranny to discover how many little tricks they employed always finding the populace conveniently gullible readily caught in the net as soon as it was spread indeed they always fooled their victims so easily that while mocking them they enslaved them the more what comment can i make concerning another fine counterfeit that ancient peoples accepted as true money they believed firmly that the great toe of pyrrhus footnote the great dreamer of empire whose costly victory at asculum wrecked his hopes of world domination he was finally killed two seven two b c by a tile dropped on his head by an old woman this story of the toe comes from plutarch's life of pyrrhus footnote king of epirus performed miracles and cured diseases of the spleen they even enhance the tale further with the legend that this toe after the corpse had been burned was found among the ashes untouched by the fire in this wise a foolish people itself invents lies and then believes them many men have recounted such things but in such a way that it is easy to see that the parts were pieced together from idle gossip of the city and silly reports from the rabble When Vespasian, footnote, Titus Flavius Vespanius left his son Titus to complete the capture of Jerusalem while he, newly elected emperor by his armies, turned back to Rome after the death of Galba in 69 AD.

The reference here is found in Suetonius' Life of Vespasian, chapter 7.

End footnote.