Babylon
Medo/Persia
Greece
ROME:
The first 3 follow each other in chronological/historical order. It is logical and makes “sense” that the 4th would also)...AND THEN throw in the facts that it was in power during Christ’s time on earth and during the formation of the Christian church. Nothing else the 4th beast could be other than Western Pagan Rome.
DIVERSE FROM THE OTHERS
dreadful and terrible,
strong exceedingly;
great iron teeth (nails of brass)
it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it
it had ten horns
little horn came up among the 10, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots
in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
more stout than his fellows
made war with the saints
spoke great words against the most High
Would think to change times and laws
The saints given into its hand for a time, times, and a dividing of time
The Little Horn, DIVERSE...as an ecclestical, religio-political ruler
Without endorsing the views of Maitland, Browne, etc., it must be owned that there was nothing in the history of ancient Rome to correspond with the main characteristic of this beast unless the symbolism used is to be very loosely interpreted. To "devour the earth," "tread it down and break it in pieces," is fairly descriptive of other empires, but Ancient Rome was precisely the one power which added government to conquest, and instead of treading down and breaking in pieces the nations it subdued, sought rather to mold them to its own civilization and polity.
— Sir Robert Anderson, "The Coming Prince" (1915)