12. How was the fourth kingdom represented?
“After, this I saw in the night-visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” Verse 7.
13. What was the fourth beast declared to be?
“Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” Verse 23.
Notes.—“This is allowed on all hands to be the Roman Empire. It was dreadful, terrible, and exceeding strong; ... and became, in effect, what the Roman writers delight to call it, the empire of the whole world.”—Adam Clarke, on Dan. 7:7.
The final overthrow of the Greeks, by the Romans, was at the battle of Pydna, in 168 b.c.
14. What was denoted by the ten horns?
“And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.” Verse 24.
Notes.—The Roman Empire was broken up into ten kingdoms between the years 351 a.d. and 476 a.d.
“The historian Machiavelli, without the slightest reference to this prophecy, gives the following list of the nations which occupied the territory of the Western Empire at the time of the fall of Romulus Augustulus (476 a.d.), the last emperor of Rome: The Lombards, the Franks, the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths, the Vandals, the Heruh, the Suevi, the Huns, and the Saxons: ten in all.