By turning to the second chapter of Daniel, we learn something with regard to the period of time when this power which made war with the Saints and overcame them should flourish in the earth. The metallic image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in His dream consisted of gold, silver, brass, iron and clay, so we are told in the interpretation given by Daniel the prophet. It represented several kingdoms, beginning with Babylon, which we learn from history flourished in the fifth and sixth centuries before Christ; and second, the Medio-Persian government, from about 580 to 331 B. C.; third, the Macedonian kingdom, founded by Alexander the Great, from 331 B. C., to 161 B. C.; fourth, the Roman Empire, established in 161 B. C., and which flourished until 483 A.D. This last named government was represented in the metallic image by the two legs of iron, which resembled very much the two divisions of the Roman Empire, the one having its seat of government at Rome, the other at Constantinople. These subsequently subdivided into the petty governments of modern Europe, having in them the elements of strength and weakness, as indicated by the feet and toes of the image, which were part of iron and part of clay. It will be observed by the dates given above that it was during the time of the Roman Empire that our Lord and Savior was born into the world. As early as the banishment of the apostle John, about 96 A. D., we discover that nearly all apostles forming the chief quorum of officers in the Church of Christ had been martyred. We are informed in Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Institutes that the year 70 A. D. Vespasian and his son Titus besieged the city of Jerusalem with an army, destroyed the city and the temple and slew many of the inhabitants, this event having been predicted by the Savior, and recorded in Matthew, twenty-fourth chapter.