I got a chapter on this in volume II of my book (The Antichrist and the Second Coming). Here is a little historical background.

THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF THE CORPORATE BEAST In Revelation 13:3 John sees one of the heads of the corporate beast as if it had been mortally wounded. We are later told this head was wounded by the sword (v. 14). The mortal wound to one of the heads of the corporate beast is a reference to Neros soon coming death (in AD 68) and the resulting chaos that would prevail in the Roman Empire (cf. Rev. 16:10). The mention of the head wound being made by the sword (Rev. 13:14) supports this interpretation, as Nero was killed with a sword. This is another example of a symbol in Revelation containing a physical referent to aid in identifying its historical correlate. Ultimately, the head that was mortally wounded is talking about the fall of the demonic king that worked through Nero and its devastating effect on the corporate beast. With the death of Nero, the Julio-Claudian dynasty collapsed. The JulioClaudian line had provided all the Caesars up to Nero (Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero). The year and a half following Neros death was a time of empire-wide strife; it resulted in two back-toback civil wars (nation rising against nation, Matt. 24:6-7). This brought the Roman Empire to the verge of collapse. In the words of Tacitus, the year AD 69 brought about the near destruction of Rome.28 This is shown in Revelation 16:10, where the kingdom of the beast is plunged into darkness (cf. Ezek. 32:1-8). During this period three short-lived emperors (Galba, Otho, and Vitellius) came to the imperial throne but could not hold onto it (see the three horns removed in Dan. 7:8). With the victory of Flavian forces over Vitellius in December AD 69, order was finally restored to the empire and the corporate beast came back to life. Smalley writes the following on Revelation 13:3 and how it fits the exact kind of historical situation that happened right after Neros death: One problem involved in making a connection between Nero, or any imperial individual, and the slaughtered head in verse 3 is that the second possessive pronoun in this sentence, (auto, its), refers to the beast. In other words, it was not the head which was restored from a mortal wound, but the beast itself (similarly verse 14). In that case the text could mean that an individual, like Nero, was fatally injured (in this case, by his own hand), but that later the Roman Empire he represented recovered its life and stability. An exact situation of this kind occurred in AD 68-69. After the death of Nero in June 68, anarchy and bloodshed took hold in the territories; and this continued throughout the time of the rebellious imperial caretakers, Galba, Otho and Vitellius (AD 68-69). But, when he came to the throne in July 69, Vespasian slowly restored the Empire to peace.29

(underlined emphasis mine) THE YEAR OF FOUR EMPERORS While Vespasian was declared emperor by Roman troops in Egypt, Judea, and Syria in July of AD 69, the Roman Empire was not restored from its mortal wound until December of 69. That was when Vitellius was killed and Vespasian became the uncontested emperor of Rome. AD 69 is known by historians as the year of four emperors. Wellesley gives the following summary of this chaotic time that accompanied the mortal wound to the Roman Empire. The year 69, that long but single year as Tacitus had earlier called it, offers a wealth of dramatic incident. After the solid and prosperous security of the first or Julio-Claudian dynasty, the ground opens. The vast edifice of the world empire is shaken. Pretender rises against pretender. The frontier armies move on Rome from Spain, Germany, the Balkans and the East. The frontiers themselves are breached by the barbarian. There are palace conspiracies, sudden assassinations, desperate battles, deeds of heroism and perfidy. The scene shifts continually from one end of the empire to the other, from Britain to Palestine, from Morocco to the Caucasus. Three emperorsGalba, Otho, Vitelliusmeet their end. The fourth, Vespasian, survives by fate or chance or merit, and founds his dynasty for good or ill.30 The reason the Roman Empire experienced such a catastrophic time during AD 68-69 is because the demonic powers behind it had suffered a mortal wound. This deadly head wound rendered the corporate beast inoperative for a year and a half. It would come back to life with the accession of Vespasian to the throne. This led to the AD 70 second coming of Titus (the individual beast) to the Holy Land to destroy the Jewish nation (cf. Dan. 11:40-12:7). Revelation 13 continually emphasizes the death and miraculous resurrection of the beast (Rev. 13:3, 12, 14). While this parallels the death and resurrection of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6-12),31 it also provides an important historical point of reference. Consider Josephus description of the sudden and surprising recovery of the Roman State from its death throes when Vespasian became the uncontested emperor in December AD 69. Upon arriving at Alexandria [Egypt], Vespasian received the good news from Rome [that he was emperor] and was greeted by embassies of congratulation from every quarter of the world, now his own. The city, though second only to Rome in size, proved too small for the throngs. Now that the whole empire was secure and the Roman state so surprisingly reestablished, Vespasian turned his attention to what remained to be done in Judea . . . [and] sent Titus with the pick of his army

to crush Jerusalem.32 (underlined emphasis mine) The Jews undoubtedly interpreted Romes death throes following Neros demise as a sign that God was going to deliver the Jewish nation. Philip Carrington, commenting on Revelation 16:10, writes the following along these lines: And the Fifth poured out his Bowl on the Throne of the Beast and his Kingdom was Darkened: This Egyptian plague of darkness symbolizes the anarchy and civil war that befell the empire after the suicide of Nero in A.D. 68. It meant a lull in the warfare in Palestine; for both Vespasian and Titus went to Alexandria. Vespasian went to Rome and became Emperor; Titus returned to Palestine also with the rank of Emperor. No doubt the Zealot prophets in Jerusalem hailed the rise of the three pretenders, and the civil war to which Vespasian had to attend, as the end of the Roman Empire and an intervention of God.33 Following on the heels of the resurrection of the corporate beast was the coming of the individual beast. The Jews were caught unaware and suddenly destroyed when Titus came at Passover of AD 70. (Cf. 1 Thess. 5:2-3: For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, Peace and safety! then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.) It is not a coincidence that this happened forty years to the day from when Jesus was killed. As Daniel had been told, the Christ would be cut off, and then the Antichrist would come and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple (Dan. 9:26). Endnotes 29. Smalley, Revelation to John, 338. 30. Kenneth Wellesley, Introduction to Tacitus: The Histories (New York: Penguin Books, 1984), 9-10. 31. For parallels between the beast and the Lamb see Stephen Smalley, The Revelation to John, 339-40. 32. Josephus, Jewish War, 4, 11, 5, trans. Cornfeld, 314. 33. Philip Carrington, The Meaning of the Revelation (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2007), 264. Originally published by SPCK, 1931.