sword, and he is “permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another” (6:4). This obviously symbolizes war and bloodshed. The removal of “peace” may represent a stab at the “Roman peace” much celebrated by the emperors, but shattered in recent history by their own grabs for power in the devastating civil wars of AD 68–69. The third horse is black; its rider holds a pair of scales, and John hears a voice saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s pay, and three quarts of