| 609 united under Cyrus, who was the son of one of the kings and son-in-law of the other, and who besieged Babylon and put an end to that empire, and on its ruins erected the Medo-Persian, or the Persian as it is more usually called, the Persians having soon gained the ascendency [ascendancy] over the Medes. No one disputes but what the Persian empire was a very powerful one, yet according to Daniel, it was some what inferior, or less than the former: for neither Cyrus nor any of his successors ever carried their arms into Africa or Spain as far as Nebuchadnezzar is reported to have done. Therefore, we set down the Persian empire as being the second of these great kingdoms, represented by the great image.
"And another third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule over all the earth." That the Macedonians headed by Alexander the Great, subverted the Persian empire is well known; the kingdom therefore, which succeeded the Persian, and which was the third great empire, was the Macedonian. Alexander lived to spread his conquests into Asia, Africa, and over much of Europe, and after his death the kingdom was divided among four of his generals; but the Selucidae of Syria, and the Lagidae of Egypt were the two most powerful of the four; hence, some have advanced the idea, and perhaps not without some propriety, that they were represented by the thighs of brass; yet all were of the Brazen, Greek, or Macedonian empire. Thus we conclude that the Macedonian empire was the third, which also was represented by the brass of the image.
"And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron; forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things; and as iron that breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise." This fourth kingdom, which was the Roman, is described as being stronger than the preceding. As iron breaketh all other metals, and is more obdurate, so the Roman empire broke in pieces the former kingdoms, and exhibited more strength and durability than the preceding one. The legs, feet, and toes of the image must certainly denote the Roman; for there never was any other nation on earth that answered Daniel's description but the Roman. Indeed, he first describes it as being very strong, or powerful; but afterwards becoming more weak and divided: and finally divided into ten different kingdoms, which were represented by the ten toes of the image. The Roman empire was at length divided into ten lesser kingdoms, as we shall see hereafter. These kingdoms retained much of the old Roman strength, and manifested it upon several occasions, so that "the kingdom was partly strong and partly broken." They mingle themselves with the seed of men;" they made marriages and alliances, one with another, as they do to this day; but no hearty union ensued. The Roman empire, therefore, is represented in a double state: first, with the strength of iron, conquering all before it, "his legs of iron" and then weakened and divided by the mixture of barbarous nations, "his feet part of iron and part of clay." It subdued Syria, and made the kingdom of the Selucidae a Roman province in the year 65 B. C.; it subdued Egypt and made the kingdom of the Lagadae [Lagidae] a Roman province in the year 30 B. C.; and in the fourth century after Christ, it began to be torn in pieces by the incursions of the barbarous nations, and at length divided into ten kingdoms. The principle part of the modern kingdoms of Europe are the remains of those ten kingdoms of the Roman empire.
Historians, and chronologists have given the following list of the divisions of this great empire, the times and dates, &c. Mr. Mede reckons up the ten kingdoms thus, in the year 456, the year after Rome was sacked by Genseric, king of the Vandals: "first, the Britons; second, the Saxons in Britain; third, the Franks; fourth, the Burgundians in France; fifth, the Wisigoths [Visigoths] in the south of France and part of Spain; sixth, the Sueves and Alans in Gallicia and Portugal; seventh, the Vandals in Africa; eighth, the Alemanes in Germany; ninth, the Ostrogoths whom the Longobards succeeded in Pannonia, and afterwards in Italy; tenth, the Greeks in the residue of the empire."
Bishop Lloyd exhibits the following list of the ten kingdoms with the time of their rise: First, the Huns about A. D. 356; second, the Ostrogoths 377; third, the Wisigoths 378; fourth, the Franks 407; fifth, the Vandals 407; sixth, the Sueves and Alans 407; seventh, the Burgundians 407; eighth, the Herules and Rugians 476; ninth, the Saxons 476; tenth, the Longobards began to reign in
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