Let's look at some of the events in the revelation and see if there is any correspondence with what happened in the 1st century AD:
(Rev 9:14 KJV) Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
(Rev 9:15 KJV) And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
Revelation is chocked full of symbol imagery but they do represent an underlying substrata.
We can place this symbolism smack in the 1st century AD and not some future event when we avail ourselves of the history of the war upon Jerusalem from the 1st century historian Josephus.
Around 67AD Vespasian and Titus his son brought the soldiers from four Roman Legions to Judea from the region of the river Euphrates through Syria to attack Judea.
Josephus in his book the Jewish Wars writes of Titus:
The troops that Titus took with were drawn largely from the the region of the Euphrates.
Tacitus writes that Antiochus of Commagene (a king) whose dominions were located on the Euphrates sent a contingent to the war. Sohemus (another king) whose territories were in the same region sent a force to work with Titus.
These Kings of the east seem to tie in with what John says here:
(Rev 16:12 KJV) And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
Now this loosing of the four angels would seem to correspond with the symbolic imagery described in Rev 9:14-15 by John and would represent the army of Vespasian and Titus to "to slay the third part of men" and the "drying up of the water" is symbolic imagery of the mobilization of this army with the "kings of the east".
(Rev 9:14 KJV) Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
(Rev 9:15 KJV) And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
Revelation is chocked full of symbol imagery but they do represent an underlying substrata.
We can place this symbolism smack in the 1st century AD and not some future event when we avail ourselves of the history of the war upon Jerusalem from the 1st century historian Josephus.
Around 67AD Vespasian and Titus his son brought the soldiers from four Roman Legions to Judea from the region of the river Euphrates through Syria to attack Judea.
Josephus in his book the Jewish Wars writes of Titus:
The troops that Titus took with were drawn largely from the the region of the Euphrates.
Tacitus writes that Antiochus of Commagene (a king) whose dominions were located on the Euphrates sent a contingent to the war. Sohemus (another king) whose territories were in the same region sent a force to work with Titus.
These Kings of the east seem to tie in with what John says here:
(Rev 16:12 KJV) And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
Now this loosing of the four angels would seem to correspond with the symbolic imagery described in Rev 9:14-15 by John and would represent the army of Vespasian and Titus to "to slay the third part of men" and the "drying up of the water" is symbolic imagery of the mobilization of this army with the "kings of the east".
Josephus isn't John the Apostle. I trust John over Josephus, though Josephus is still a decent writer.
I am well aware of the sack of Jerusalem even before I was a Christian as Roman History is probably the ancients I have researched the most. So I can tell you quite confidently that outside the 7 Letters, there is no event that fulfills the other signs of Revelation.
In regards to the angels of Euphrates, I believe those are literal angels that will literally slay a 3rd part of men.
We shouldn't try to symbolize things that are not symbolic. Revelation explains to you the meaning of everything, except the 7 Thunders, within the book if you simply take the words as they are written without any pre-supposition.