<P> Some Christians interpret the Horsemen as a prophecy of a future Tribulation, during which many on Earth will die as a result of multiple catastrophes . The Four Horsemen are the first in a series of "Seal" judgements . This is when God will judge the Earth, and is giving the World a chance to repent before they die . </P> <P> According to E.B. Elliott, the first seal, as revealed to John by the angel, was to signify what was to happen soon after John seeing the visions in Patmos and that the second, third and fourth seals in like manner were to have commencing dates each in chronological sequence following the preceding seal . Its general subject is the decline and fall, after a previous prosperous era, of the Empire of Heathen Rome . The first four seals of Revelation, represented by four horses and horsemen, are fixed to events, or changes, within the Roman Earth . </P> <P> Some modern scholars interpret Revelation from a preterist point of view, arguing that its prophecy and imagery apply only to the events of the first century of Christian history . In this school of thought, Conquest, the white horse's rider, is sometimes identified as a symbol of Parthian forces: Conquest carries a bow, and the Parthian Empire was at that time known for its mounted warriors and their skill with bow and arrow . Parthians were also particularly associated with white horses . Some scholars specifically point to Vologases I, a Parthian shah who clashed with the Roman Empire and won one significant battle in 62 AD . </P> <P> Revelation's historical context may also influence the depiction of the black horse and its rider, Famine . In 92 AD, the Roman emperor Domitian attempted to curb excessive growth of grapevines and encourage grain cultivation instead, but there was major popular backlash against this effort, and it was abandoned . Famine's mission to make wheat and barley scarce but "hurt not the oil and the wine" could be an allusion to this episode . The red horse and its rider, who take peace from the earth, might represent the prevalence of civil strife at the time Revelation was written; internecine conflict ran rampant in the Roman Empire during and just prior to the 1st century AD . </P>

Who does not appear in the four horsemen of the apocolypse