Domitian's edict on the vineyards
Apoc. 6,6 ("a choinix of wheat
for a denarius (χοινιξ σιτου δηναριου),
and three choinikes of barley for a denarius (και τρεις χοινικες
κριθων δηναριου),
and do not damage the olive and the vine (και το ελαιον και τον οινον μη αδικησης)”)
appears quite clearly to refer to Domitian's unimplemented edict
forbidding further planting of vines in Italy, and the reduction of acerage for
vinyards in the provinces, if feasible, by one half. It seems to have been a
response to famine aimed at encouraging the growing of corn. The instruction το ελαιον και τον οινον μη αδικησης
seems therefore to be directed at a situation where famine prices
for wheat were threatening olive and vine-growing. On the foundations of this
clear indication of a Domitianic date for the Apocalypse it is then possible
to point to other Domitianic allusions found generally in the Apocalypse as
well as in the letters to the seven churches. (Allen Brent, The Imperial Cult and the Development of Church Order:
Concepts and Images of Authority in Paganism and Early Christianity Before the
Age of Cyprian [Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 45; Leiden: Brill, 1999],
165-66)
