Rev 17:10-11..........
John begins his count with the first self-proclaimed emperor of Rome, Julius Caesar. Prior to Julius Caesar’s reign, Rome was a republic ruled by someone like a president whose power was limited by the senate. After Julius Caesar’s death, Rome was ruled by kings with absolute power. The next four Caesars are Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius, and Claudius. These kings had fallen. Therefore John must have been shown this vision during the reign of the next Caesar, the one named by the 666 cryptogram in Revelation 13:18–Nero.
During the year between Nero’s death and Vespasian’s ascension, Rome was ruled by three generals each of whom ruled during a time of civil war and thus never fully attained control of the empire. Upon seizing power, each general’s claim to the throne was heavily contested by uprisings in various parts of the empire that supported another general’s right to rule. The west supported Galba, parts of the empire supported Otho and the north supported Vitellius. The first-century Roman historian Suetonius in his work entitled The Lives of the Twelve Caesars refers to the brief reigns of Galba, Otho and Vitellius as but a “rebellion.” Josephus, another first-century historian, called every Roman ruler from Julius to Vespasian “Caesar” except when mentioning Galba, Otho and Vitellius. These kings all reigned in A.D. 69 during what may have been the most tumultuous year in Roman history corresponding with the fifth plague of Revelation 16:10.
At this time, God turned his attention away from Judea and raised his hand against Rome. This plague was triggered by Nero’s death. Having stabbed himself in the throat, Nero represents the wounded head of the beast. As a result of this fatal wound (Revelation 13:3), the beast’s kingdom is cast into darkness and thus begins the fifth plague. The fact that Rome, the beast, is cast into darkness during the fifth plague of Revelation 16:10 symbolizes the descent of the beast into the outer darkness of the Abyss, “the land of gloom and utter darkness, . . . the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness (Job 10:19-22).” The Abyss is presumably the dark underworld of the dead. The fact that the beast is dead in A.D. 69 is also implied by the fact that in Revelation 11:7 and Revelation 17:8 the beast is said to come up out of the Abyss, the realm of the dead as stated above. This resurrection imagery points to the antecedent death of the beast. During this year of darkness, Rome died with Nero and the Roman Empire collapsed from the combined weight of wars to the east and west and a three-way civil war within.
The collapse of the Roman Empire in A.D. 69 is also implied in Revelation 16:19: “The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed.” “The great city” in v. 19 is an ambiguous term for both Jerusalem and Rome. In A.D. 69 both Rome and Jerusalem split into three parts as a consequence of separate three-way civil wars. In Jerusalem, Jewish rebels split the city into three factions led by three aspiring Messiahs—John, Simon and Eleazar. Meanwhile in Rome, Galba, Otho and Vitellius pitted the Roman legions against each other for control of the empire. According to Revelation 16:19, after the death of Nero, while Jerusalem and Rome were split into three parts, “the cities of the nations collapsed.” “The cities of the nations” is Rome. The collapse of the Roman Empire is symbolically depicted as the death of the seven-headed beast as a consequence of the “fatal wound” of Revelation 13:3 in which Nero committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat in A.D. 68.
With the sixth head wounded, the Roman leviathan suffered a fatal injury, an injury with which Rome does not fully recover until the fall of Jerusalem and the rise of the Flavian Dynasty, when peace and order returned. Having ruled during the fifth plague, when Rome is metaphorically dead as a result of its wounded head, Galba, Otho and Vitellius are not considered heads of the beast. These three men ruled in A.D. 69, when the beast “now is not.” The beast that has not yet come in v. 10 is the Roman Empire under the Flavian Dynasty; Caesar Vespasian, Caesar Titus and Caesar Domitian. - RevelationRevolution.org