And he said unto me, The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Read Chapter 17
A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian
AD 255
Moreover, by the waters, the cataracts broken forth meeting together on all sides, and growing, were signified the peoples which grew up for the desolation of the Church; as the Apocalypse teaches, saying, "The waters which thou sawest are peoples, and nations, and kingdoms."
The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, signify the different nations, in all which is a multitude of wicked, especially among the great ones of this world. (Witham)
And the ten horns. Shall hate the harlot. That is, ancient Rome; they will make her desolate, by laying waste all her provinces; they will make her. Naked, by stripping her of her shining ornaments, her gaudy palaces, Egyptian obelisks, magnificent temples, theatres, triumphal arches
They will eat her flesh, by plundering her of her wealth and riches, with which she has fed herself by plundering the rest of the world; and lastly, they will burn her with fire; all which we know has been accomplished, even to a tittle. (Pastorini)
Alaric, the Goth, in 410, took the city, pillaged it, and delivered it over to fire and the plunder of his soldiers for three days. The only privileged places that escaped were the churches. (Calmet)
Genseric plundered it for fourteen days, in 455, and set fire to it. Odoacer to...
