THE ROMAN DOMINION.
An understanding of the Scriptures does not depend upon access to other
books, or reference to historical records outside the limits of the
Bible. The Word of God is its own interpreter, and all that is needed
for our establishment in the faith is contained in its pages. On the
other hand, the Bible throws light upon history not recorded therein,
and it is with that in view that we give certain historical outlines in
dealing with our subject.
The first part of the prophet's description of the fourth kingdom is as
follows: "The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron
breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that crusheth
all these, shall it break in pieces and crush" (v. 40). A similar
description is given in his account of a subsequent vision, in which he
saw four great beasts coming up from the sea. In this vision the Roman
kingdom again was undoubtedly symbolised by the fourth beast. This beast
he describes as "terrible and powerful, and strong exceedingly; and it
had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the
residue with his feet" (7. 7). So, again, in the words of the
interpretation: "The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth,
which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole
earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces" (v. 23). Now all
this exactly depicts the Roman power in its subjugation and control of
the nations which eventually composed its empire. In the light, then, of
these prophecies we give a brief sketch of its rise and conquests.
The Rise and Progress of the Roman Empire.
The Romans, who early in the third century B.C. had become masters of
all Italy, save in the extreme north, were drawn into a course of
conquest beyond the limits of their own country by the rivalry of the
rapidly advancing power of Carthage in North Africa. Carthage, a city
founded some centuries earlier by Phoenician colonists from Tyre and
Sidon, had at length become the capital of a great North African empire,
stretching from Tripoli to the Atlantic Ocean, and embracing settlements
elsewhere in countries and islands of the Mediterranean. These
settlements included the greater part of Sicily, and that island,
situated between the rival nations, became the first bone of contention
between them. The precise cause of the struggle must not occupy us here,
but the circumstances which decided the Roman Government, in 264 B.C.,
upon an invasion of Sicily were of the deepest significance in the
history of the world. By the year 242 Sicily was subdued. In the
following year the island was ceded by Carthage, and the extension of
Roman dominion beyond Italy was begun. The war continued intermittently,
with many vicissitudes, for a century, but eventually the Carthagians
were overwhelmingly defeated by land and sea. "Think you that Carthage
or that Rome will be content, after the victory, with its own country
and Sicily?" said a Greek orator, while the issues of the struggle in
its earliest stage were yet in the balance. Rome's vast ambition, and
her abundant means of gratifying it, justified the orator's fears. The
islands of Sardinia and Corsica were shortly afterwards seized.
Defeated in Sicily, Carthage extended her dominions in Spain and made
that country a base for marching through Gaul to attack the Romans from
the north. Though their renowned leader Hannibal met with success, their
effort was doomed to failure. Meanwhile Roman armies had pushed into
Spain. After a fierce struggle of thirteen years the Carthagians were
completely overcome there, and Spain soon became a Roman province. By
the decisive battle of Zama, in North Africa, in 202, Carthage and its
territories became tributary, and thus all the western Mediterranean
passed under the supremacy of Rome. Eventually in 146, as a result of a
final war, Carthage was razed to the ground, and its North African
kingdom was constituted a Roman province under the name of Africa. War
with the Celts in North Italy, commencing the next year, resulted in the
extension of the boundary to the Alps, and countries beyond began to
feel the terror of the Roman name.
Eastward Extension.
The second century B.C. witnessed the spread of the iron rule eastward.
The Grecian Empire of Alexander the Great, the third mentioned in
Daniel's interpretation, had embraced all the countries surrounding the
eastern half of the Mediterranean and had stretched far beyond the
Euphrates. The disintegration of Alexander's empire after his death
prepared the way for the Romans. Macedonia, the former seat of that
empire, was their first great objective. A pretext for war was soon
forthcoming, and war was actually declared in 200 B.C. A series of
struggles ensued, and Macedonia was not finally subdued for over thirty
years. Meanwhile matters had developed in Greece and Asia Minor. In the
latter country Antiochus III., the Great, who had also conquered Syria
and Palestine, was seeking to extend his dominions. Cities and states of
Asia Minor, however, groaning under the tyranny of Antiochus, appealed
to Rome for aid. The Romans declared war against him in 192 B.C. The
first conflict occurred in Greece, which was largely under his
influence. An early victory secured the submission of the Greek states.
Antiochus retreated into Asia Minor, and was finally crushed at Magnesia
in 190. The whole of Asia Minor was then surrendered to Rome. Actual
possession was postponed and local government was largely granted both
there and in Greece. But that policy proved impracticable, and the force
of circumstances compelled a forward movement to universal empire. There
was no such thing as the balance of power in the ancient world. Once a
country became predominant there was nothing for it but the subjugation
of its neighbours. The extension of Rome's dominions eastward was a
fulfilment of a destiny beyond its own control. The reverent student of
Scripture sees in the course of these events the unfolding of God's
plans and the fulfilment of His Word.
The final campaign against the Macedonians was opened in 169 B.C., and
in the next year they were overwhelmed at the decisive battle of Pydna.
Macedonia and the adjacent state of Illyria became tributary, and
eventually were reduced to Roman provinces.
The Romans then felt the necessity of definitely annexing Greece.
Seventy towns in that country were plundered and 150,000 inhabitants
were sold into slavery. Antiochus IV., Epiphanes, was now king of Syria
and Palestine, and had possessed himself of almost the whole of Egypt.
Such was the effect of the battle of Pydna, however, that he was at once
compelled to hand over Egypt to the conquerors, and that country became
a Roman protectorate. Syria passed under Roman control at the death of
Antiochus Epiphanes, in 164, and by the end of a few decades all the
states of Asia Minor had been incorporated.
Thus by the middle of this century the Republic of Rome had gained
ascendancy east and west. Its senate was recognised by the civilised
world as "the supreme tribunal for kings and nations." Early in the next
century Dalmatia and Thrace were subdued, and the latter was
incorporated in the province of Macedonia. Wars with Mithradates, King
of Pontus, Cappadocia and Armenia, resulted in the conquest of all his
territories, and provinces were formed out of the states from thence
westward to the AEgean sea.
Palestine Annexed.
This century saw the actual interference of Rome in the affairs of
Judaea. Syria had been made a province in 65 B.C. by the Roman General
Pompey, and from thence he intervened in a strife which had for some
time been raging amongst the leaders of the Jews. In 63 he marched an
army into Judaea and took Jerusalem. At the final assault upon the Temple
12,000 Jews perished. Judaea thus passed under the iron heel.
As a result of the wars of Caesar in north-western Europe, in 58-51 B.C.,
what are now Switzerland, France, and Belgium were subdued and Britain
was invaded. By Caesar also Roman authority in Africa was consolidated
across the entire length of the north of the continent. The conquests of
Rome as a Republic were complete. The Mediterranean had become a "Roman
lake."
[Illustration: THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN APOSTOLIC TIMES.]
The Empire Completed.
In 27 B.C. the purely Republican form of constitution was abolished, and
the government of the Roman world was concentrated in the hands of an
Emperor, the Caesar Augustus of Luke 2.1. In his reign were fulfilled the
prophecies foretelling the Birth of Christ. When the Prince of Peace was
born in Bethlehem the din of strife was hushed throughout the empire,
and Rome, under the restraining hand of God, ceased for a time its
warring. By Augustus the northern territories of the empire were
extended to practically the entire length of the Danube. The greater
part of Britain became a province under Claudius. A later Emperor,
Trajan, added, at the beginning of the second century A.D., the province
of Dacia, covering what are now Transylvania and most of Roumania. Under
Marcus Aurelius (161-180) a large part of Mesopotamia was finally
annexed.
This completes the actual conquests of the Romans. We will now note
certain characteristics of their method of subjugation, viewed in the
light of Daniel's prophecy concerning the fourth kingdom, that, like
iron, it would "break in pieces and crush."
The Crushing of the Nations.
The crushing process was evidenced in many ways, and especially by the
establishment of a general system of slavery, which almost everywhere
supplanted free labour. Slave-hunting and slave-dealing became a
profession. To such an extent were they carried on at one period that
certain provinces were well nigh depopulated. We are told that at the
great slave-market in the island of Delos, off Greece, as many as ten
thousand slaves were disembarked in the morning and bought up before
the evening of the same day. Chained gangs worked under overseers and
were confined in prison at night. To take an instance of the extreme
rigour of the laws regulating the traffic, it is recorded by the
historian Tacitus, that once, when the Prefect of Rome had been killed
by one of his slaves, of whom he owned a vast number, the whole of his
slaves, many of them women and children, were executed together, in
accordance with an ancient law. That event took place about the time,
apparently, at which the Apostle Paul arrived at Rome.
But not only were the nations ground down by slavery, the pages of Roman
history abound in records of wholesale massacre and butchery. We may
note, for instance, Luke's statement of Pilate's slaughter of Galilaeans
while they were sacrificing (Luke 13. 1). Records abound, too, of
grossly burdensome taxation and financial exactions, in which the Romans
outdid all tyrants that had preceded them. Usury flourished in the last
century as it had never done before. Four per cent. per month was an
ordinary exaction for a loan to a community. On one occasion a Roman
banker, who had a claim on the municipality of Salamis, in Cyprus, kept
its council blockaded until five of its members died of hunger.
By these methods the provinces of the empire were at one period reduced
to a condition of unsurpassed misery. Nothing could more vividly
describe the course of such a kingdom and the control exercised by it
than the words of Daniel quoted above.
The Twofold Division.
This fourth kingdom was destined to be divided; and in two respects,
territorial and constitutional. The territorial division was indicated
by the symbolism of the legs and feet of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's
vision; the constitutional division was declared in Daniel's
interpretation concerning the iron and clay (v. 40). The former of these
divisions claims our consideration first. Territorially the kingdom
would be first divided into two parts corresponding with the legs of the
image. This actually took place in the fourth century of the present
era.
The Roman Empire had continued in a more or less united condition for
over three centuries after the accession of its first Emperor, Augustus,
in 27 B.C., though various signs of a coming division manifested
themselves. It was not unusual, for instance, for an emperor to appoint
an associate with himself in the imperial rank, and on one occasion
Maximian, who thus became associated with Diocletian in A.D. 288,
actually established his seat of government at Nicomedia, in Asia Minor.
Constantine (323-337) united the empire under his sole rule, but paved
the way for the final separation of east from west by founding, in 328,
the city of Constantinople as a second Rome, after his own name, and
establishing it as an eastern centre of government with its own
legislative institutions. This arrangement was favoured by several
conditions, national and otherwise, which characterised the countries of
the eastern half as distinct from those of the western.
At the death of Constantine, in 337, his dominions were divided among
his three sons, a division, however, which lasted but a brief time. The
empire was in 353 again united under Constantius, the survivor of the
three. The long impending division into two parts took place under
Valentinian I., in the year of his accession, 364. Yielding to the wish
of his soldiers that he should associate a colleague with himself, he
placed his brother Valens in power in the east, with headquarters at
Constantinople, he himself retaining control over the west.
The Tenfold Division.
Prophetic Scriptures show that the Roman Empire would be further
divided. Now while the ten toes of the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream
have not improperly been regarded as indicative of a tenfold division,
the fact that the image had ten toes would be insufficient of itself to
signify this, for the toes are naturally essential to a complete human
figure. Moreover, the hands and their fingers, equally essential parts,
have no territorial significance attached to them. The conclusion
regarding the toes is, however, justified when we find the tenfold
division abundantly confirmed by other Scriptures.
Thus the fourth beast in the vision in chapter 7, which, as we have
seen, likewise symbolised the Roman kingdom, is described as having _ten
horns_ (v. 7). The interpretation clearly tells us what these are: "And
as for the ten horns, out of the kingdom (the fourth) shall _ten kings_
arise" (v. 24). The Apocalypse gives us further information regarding
this division, unfolding with increasing clearness the details connected
with it. In one of the visions given to the apostle John, he sees "a
great red dragon, having seven heads and _ten horns_" (Rev. 12. 3). The
meaning of the ten horns is not there explained. We are told that the
great dragon is "the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan,
the deceiver of the whole world" (v. 9). Turning now to the next
chapter, we find another vision recorded, giving a fresh view of the
same subject. A beast was seen "coming up out of the sea, having _ten
horns_ and seven heads, and on his horns ten diadems, and upon his heads
names of blasphemy" (chap. 13. 1). Again an explanation of the ten horns
is withheld, but that they are identical with those of the twelfth
chapter is undeniable. The Apostle receives, however, a further vision,
recorded in chapter 17: "I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-coloured
beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and _ten horns_"
(chap. 17. 3). And now the symbolism of the horns is explained: "the ten
horns that thou sawest are _ten kings_, which have received no kingdom
as yet; but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one
hour. These have one mind, and they give their power and authority unto
the beast" (vv. 12, 13).
We are now concerned, of course, solely with the tenfold division of the
empire; other details of the visions just referred to remain for later
consideration. We cannot fail to see that what is symbolised by the ten
toes of the image, and by the ten horns of the fourth beast as revealed
to Daniel, is identical with what is symbolised by the ten horns of the
dragon and of the beast seen by John, namely, the Roman kingdom in its
ultimately divided condition.
A Comparison of the Visions.
The following points are noteworthy in comparing these visions
relatively to the tenfold division. First, there is a parallelism in the
order of the revelations given to the two seers, Daniel and John. A
preliminary vision is given to each--more than one in the case of
John--in which, in the matter of this territorial partition, symbols
occur without explanation. Each then receives a further vision, in the
interpretation of which the eventual division into ten kingdoms is
plainly disclosed. To Daniel it is said: "As for the ten horns, out of
the kingdom shall ten kings arise;" and to John: "The ten horns that
thou sawest are ten kings, ... which receive authority as kings with
the beast for one hour."
Second, the ten kingdoms are seen to be contemporaneous, as is indicated
by the co-existence of the ten horns of the beast, and further, by the
fact that the ten kings mutually agree to a certain line of policy in
handing over their authority to a supreme potentate (Rev. 17. 12, 13).
Third, it is evident that the fourth kingdom is the last of the Gentile
world-powers, and that it will exist in its tenfold state at the end of
the times of the Gentiles. We observed this above in the case of the
image, from the fact that the stone, symbolising the kingdom of Christ,
smote the image upon its toes. So now, in the vision of the four beasts,
it is the fourth beast that is slain, his body destroyed, and given to
be burned (Dan. 7. 11). The Personal Agent of this destruction is here
made known: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there came with
the clouds of Heaven One like unto a son of man, and He came even to the
Ancient of Days, ... and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a
kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him:
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and
His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" (vv. 13, 14). The
finality of the fourth kingdom is clearer still from the interpretation
given in the remainder of the chapter. The final world-ruler is, of
course, prominent in this vision; in his destruction is involved the
destruction of his kingdom; his power and aggression are terminated when
the Ancient of Days comes (v. 22); then it is that "the judgment shall
sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it
unto the end. And the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the
kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the
saints of the Most High: His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all
dominions shall serve and obey Him" (vv. 26, 27). Similarly, again, in
Revelation 13 and 17, in the corresponding visions of the beast and its
ten horns, the ten kings and their federal head, ruling at the time of
the end, "shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them,
for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they _also shall
overcome_ that are with Him, called and chosen and faithful" (Rev. 17.
14).
The crushing of the image by the stone, the slaying of the fourth beast
before the Ancient of Days, and the conquest of the ten kings and their
chief by the Lamb, are therefore different views of the same event. The
tenfold division of the fourth kingdom is obviously still future, and
marks the condition of the world-government at the close of the times of
the Gentiles, and immediately prior to the kingdom of Christ.
The Testimony of Early Christian Writers.
That the Roman Empire would in its final form be divided into ten
kingdoms was held by Christian writers of the earliest post-apostolic
times. Their opinions are here given, not as forming any basis of
exposition, but as expressions of early Christian conception of the
Scriptures under consideration.
What is known as "_The Epistle of Barnabas_," probably written early in
the second century A.D., quotes from Daniel concerning the ten kingdoms
to show that they would exist at the consummation of the present age.
_Irenaeus_ (circa A.D. 120-202), a disciple of Polycarp, who had been a
companion of the apostle John, observes that "the ten toes are ten
kings, among whom the kingdom will be divided." _Tertullian_, a
contemporary of Irenaeus, remarks that "the disintegration and dispersion
of the Roman State among the ten kings will produce Antichrist, and then
shall be revealed that Wicked One, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with
the breath of His mouth and destroy by the brightness of His
manifestation." _Hippolytus_, who was a follower of Irenaeus, and
flourished in the first half of the third century, makes similar
reference to the ultimate division. _Lactantius_, of the latter half of
the third and the early part of the fourth centuries, writes as follows:
"The Empire will be sub-divided, and the powers of government, after
being frittered away and shared among many, will be undermined. Civil
discords will then ensue, nor will there be respite from destructive
wars, until ten kings arise at once, who will divide the world among
themselves to consume rather than to govern it." _Cyril_ (circa
315-386), who became bishop of Jerusalem in 350, quoting from Daniel,
and speaking of the Empire and its future division, implies that
teaching on the subject was customary in the churches. _Jerome_
(342-420) observes that "at the end of the world, when the kingdom of
the Romans is to be destroyed, there will be ten kings to divide the
Roman world among themselves." Similarly writes _Theodoret_ in the fifth
century, and others of that time make more or less direct reference to
the subject. While the views of these writers differ considerably on
other points of detail, all are unanimous as to the eventual division of
the Empire among ten contemporaneous potentates.
Processes at Work Since the Twofold Division.
The mediaeval and modern history of the lands originally constituting the
Roman Empire is a history of the formation of independent states in such
a way as to point to the eventual revival of the Empire in the tenfold
division we have been considering. The process has been a long and
involved one, for the counsels of God have had a far wider range than
the mere shaping of national destiny. It has been the Divine pleasure,
for instance, that the Gospel should be spread among all nations for the
purpose of taking out from among them a people for the Name of Christ,
and for the formation thereby of His Church. In contradistinction to
this, and from the standpoint of the world itself, which, though under
God's control, remains in alienation from Him, there has been a gradual
development of the political, social, and religious principles which are
ultimately to permeate the nations.