384 G. Biguzzi (2) The two idolatries fit Rome and its empire more than Jerusalem. (3) The Babylon which corrupts the nations (Rev) fits Rome more than the Jerusalem, which, instead, was corrupted by them (OT). (4) As far as the dating of Rev is concerned, the anti-Roman interpretation is altogether reconcilable with the post-70 dating, while the anti-Jewish one meets insurmountable difficulties with it (44). (5) Imprisonment at Smyrna, forced sojourn on Patmos, and death penalty by sword or axe lead to the Imperial penal law, and exclude the Jewish one. The objections against the anti-Roman interpretation listed above can be answered as follows (45): (6) Even if the expression eJpta; o[rh is not found in Greek literature, the singular o[ro" is repeatedly employed for one or other of the seven Roman hills by Strabo (64 B.C. - 21 A.D.), Dionysius of Halicarnassus (30 A.D. circa), and Dio Cassius (II-III century A.D.), while Plutarch employs the term septomouvntion, tracing on the Latin septimontium, the feast of the seven Roman “mountains” (not “hills”)(46). (44) As a confirmation cf. G.R. BEASLEY-MURRAY, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI – London 21987) 249, who writes: “After the terrible Jewish war, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem, the Jews would have looked for just such a judgment of God on Rome as this chapter [i.e. Rev 17] delineates”. (45) Among the many authors who interpret the seven hills of Rev 17,9 as the seven hills of Rome, one can mention B. REICKE, “Die jüdische Apokalyptik und die johanneische Tiervision”, RechSR 60 (1972) 174 (“unmissverständlich”); S. GAROFALO, “‘Sette monti, su cui siede la donna’ (Apoc. 17,9)”, Kirche und Bibel. Festgabe E. Schick (Paderborn – München – Wien – Zürich 1979) 97-104; K. GENTRY, Before Jerusalem fell. Dating the Book of Revelation (San Francisco – London – Bethesda 1997) 149, 150, 151 (“Rome is the one city in history that has been distinguished for and universally recognizable by its seven hills”, “Everywhere throughout the empire Rome was known as the city on seven hills. When John wrote Revelation there was no other city conceivable that was so universally noted for its seven hills”, “… there was no other city conceivable that was so universally noted for its seven hills”). (46) Listing the seven hills in his historical-topographical treatise of Rome, Strabo of Amaseia Pontica (64 B.C. – 21 A.D.) employs o[ro" for the Hills Caelian and Aventine (5,3,7). Likewise the rhetorician and historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, active in Rome in the thirties of 1st century B.C., employs o[ro" for the Palatinus and the Caelius (Antiq. Rom. 2,50,1), and Dio Cassius (II and III century A.D.) uses o[ro" in Hist. Rom. 53,27,5 and 62,182,2 for the Palatinus, and in 30,15; 44,25,3 for the Capitolinus. The term septomouvntion is found in Plutarch, Aetia Romana et Graeca 280.C.10, and D.2. – On the contrary, the adjective septicollis is found in Latin literature only in the work of the late