The indifference with which Constantine viewed the country of the Cæsars, was regarded by Gibbon as the cause of removal. He transferred the customs and forms of the Roman government, and there exercised all the powers of the empire,—the Italians still obeying the edicts which he condescended to address from Constantinople to the Senate and people of Rome. The western division continued dependent on the eastern head, till the death of Theodosius, A. D. 395. His two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, “were saluted by the unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of the East, and of the West,”—the European boundary being “not very different from that which separates the Germans from the Turks.”—Gibbon, v. 2, p. 199. Gibbon calls this “the final and permanent division of the Roman empire.” But its existence as a beast more properly dates from the removal of Constantine. Its two horns like a lamb, must symbolize two divisions of the kingdom. These may be contemporary, like those symbolized by the ten horns (17:12), or successive, like the two horns of the ram, Dan. 8:3, 20. From the history of the Eastern empire, the latter is the more probable; and its historical resemblance to the government symbolized by the ram, may be the reason of the comparison to “horns like a lamb.” As Persia was a government outside of Media, and succeeded to its sovereignty, so did the kingdom of the Turks originate outside of the Eastern empire, and at length come in, occupy its territory, and succeed to its sovereignty, A. D. 1253. With this view, the horns would symbolize the kings of Eastern Rome and of Turkey. See pp. 99-104. Its dragon-like speech shows it to be a blasphemous, persecuting power, like that which persecuted the woman, 12:17. Though the Greek empire claimed to be Christian, a successor of Constantine, Julian the Apostate, renounced Christianity, endeavored to restore the Pagan service in Constantinople, and “declared himself the _implacable enemy of Christ_.” He assumed the character of Supreme Pontiff, and thus placed himself at the head of the Pagan worship. He labored incessantly to restore and propagate those dragonic rites, and even thought to disprove the predictions of Christ by rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem. “He affected to pity the unhappy Christians, as mistaken in the most important object of their lives; but his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt was embittered by hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of sarcastic wit which inflicts a deep and deadly wound whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign.” And he intimated that they might have occasion “to dread, not only confiscation and exile, but fire and the sword.”—_Gibbon._