“Ye will have tribulation ten days.”— Verse 10
Domitian, the Roman emperor, was slain A.D. 96. John was in Patmos at the time; therefore the letter to the Smyrneans was before that date. Domitian was succeeded in the throne by Nerva, who published a pardon for those who were condemned for impiety, recalled those who were banished, and forbade the accusing of any men on account of impiety, or Judaism. Others, who were under accusation or under sentence of condemnation, now escaped by the lenity of Nerva. This brings us the close of the first century, in which we behold the Christians, for the present, in a state of external peace. Under this full toleration the apostle John recovered his liberty, and, at the age of about one hundred, fell asleep in Christ before the short interval of tranquillity was closed by the persecuting spirit of Trajan.
The mild and aged Nerva adopted Trajan A.D 98, and declared him his colleague and successor in the empire. When Nerva deceased, and Trajan became sole master of the Habitable of the Diabolos, the spirit of persecution broke out afresh; and appears to have been very severe in the region of the Seven Ecclesias. The “tribulation” continued ten years, until the death of Trajan, A.D. 117.
While the Smyrneans, and their brethren in Asia Minor, were enduring the tribulation of the symbolical “ten days," Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, a character well known in pagan history, wrote the following letter to Trajan, which sufficiently explains itself.