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. I considered the horns, and, behold,
there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were
three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this
horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great
things."

[Illustration: ROME ON THE TIBER

The palace of the Caesars appears high on the hill at the left.]

_History._--As the iron of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream fitly
represented the "iron monarchy of Rome," so here the dreadful beast,
with its iron teeth, can be none other than Rome, which followed Grecia
in world dominion. It was the most powerful, the most dominating, of all
the beasts in the prophetic series. A Roman Catholic writer, Cardinal
Manning, compresses into a paragraph the correspondence of history to
the likeness of the prophecy:

[Illustration: BATTLE OF ZAMA, B.C. 202

By which Rome broke the power of Carthage, its rival, and "began the
conquest of the world."]

"The legions of Rome occupied the circumference of the world.
The military roads which sprang from Rome traversed all the
earth; the whole world was, as it were, held in peace and in
tranquillity by the universal presence of this mighty heathen
empire. It was 'exceedingly terrible,' according to the
prophecies of Daniel; it was as it were of iron, beating down
and subduing the nations."--_"The Temporal Power of the Pope"
(London, 1862), p. 122._

Thus far every symbol of the prophet's vision finds its exact and clear
counterpart in history. A writer living in the third century, in the
days of imperial Rome, rejoiced to see how exactly the prophecy was
being fulfilled. Hippolytus (counted a saint by the Catholic Church)
wrote:

"Rejoice, blessed Daniel! thou hast not been in error! All
these things have come to pass. After this again thou hast told
us of the beast, dreadful and terrible. It has iron teeth and
claws of brass; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped
the residue with the feet of it. Already the iron rules;
already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already it brings
all the unwilling into subjection; already we se