led, and
the executive power committed to two consuls, to be elected annually. This
commenced the "Commonwealth of Rome."

3. _Dictatorial._--The office of dictator was the highest known in Rome,
and was only resorted to in cases of emergency. He was elected for six
months only, and usually resigned his authority, which, for the time, was
nearly absolute, as soon as he had effected the object for which he was
chosen.

4. _Decemviral._--In B. C. 451, the government was so changed, that,
instead of the two consuls, the government was committed to ten men, to be
chosen annually, and jointly exercise the sovereign power. After two years
the decemvirs were banished, and the consular government was restored.

5. _Tribunitial._--In B. C. 426, Rome having become a military state,
military tribunes were substituted for the consular power, till B. C. 366,
when the latter was again restored.

6. _Pagan Imperial._--With the battle of Actium, B. C. 31, the Roman
Commonwealth terminated; and Augustus Caesar united in his own person not
only the offices of Consul, Tribune, &c., but also that of _Supreme
Pontiff_,--the head of the pagan hierarchy. This last office, says Gibbon,
"was constantly exercised by the emperors." Thus were united the highest
civil and ecclesiastical powers of the state.

7. _Christian Imperial._--In A. D. 312, the government was revolutionized,
by the accession of Constantine to the throne. He effected important
changes in the relations of the people to the monarch, opposed idolatry,
and by the introduction of Christianity, effected a political change in
the laws and administration of the empire. This continued, with a slight
interruption under Julian the Apostate, till the subversion of the Western
empire, A. D. 476.

Mr. Elliott, in explanation of the first five heads, says: "I adopt, with
the most entire satisfaction, that generally-received Protestant
interpretation, which, following the authoritative statement of Livy and
Tacitus (the latter great historian, St. John's own contemporary),
enumerates kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and military tribunes, as
the first five constitutional heads of the Roman city and commonwealth;
then as the sixth, the Imperial head, commencing with Octavian."--_Horae
Apoca._, vol. III., p. 106, 4th ed.

Those heads are shown to symbolize seven forms of government, by the
explanation that "they are seven mountains where the woman sits on them
[mountains also symb