Having seven heads and ten horns.—See Dan. 7:7, 20; Rev. 13:1; 17:3, 9‐12; 5:6; 1 Sam. 2:10; Deut. 33:17; 1 Ki. 22:11. The Eastern, or Byzantine Empire, was founded in A. D. 395, when Theodosius divided the Roman Empire between his two sons, Honorius and Arcadius, assigning to the latter all the portion lying east of the Adriatic sea. At this time the Roman Empire became the two legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision. At the time the division was made the five potential races in the East were the Greeks, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Heruli and Vandals. The five potential races in the West were the Franks, Britons, Saxons, Visigoths and Suevi. During the next one hundred and fifty years great migrations and invasions have so confused history that there is great difference of opinion among historians on many important details. It is plain, however, that three of the migratory races disappeared from history, all within a few years of each other, apparently in order to leave Rome and its environs free for the development of the papacy. The Heruli, a race from Germanic territory, disappeared from Italian territory in A. D. 489; the Vandals, a race from the shores of the Baltic (never in control of Rome except on a brief raid, but a great enemy of the papacy) disappeared in A. D. 534; and the Ostrogoths, an Asiatic race, in A. D. 539. The Western Empire itself disappeared in A. D. 476. The matter is treated by Pastor Russell at greater length in C. 76, 77, and all his statements are, of course, correct. And seven crowns upon his heads.—In the Eastern Empire, corresponding to the present Turkey and the Balkans, and in Lombardy, corresponding to the present Austria, we may see the two horns which remained of the five Eastern powers after the Ostrogoths, Heruli and Vandals disappeared. And in the Visigothic Kingdom, corresponding to Spain; Suevia, corresponding to Portugal; the Kingdom of the Franks, corresponding to France and the Netherlands; Saxonia, corresponding to Germany and Scandinavia; and Britannia, corresponding to Great Britain, we may see the five horns which represented the five western powers. The following explains why Italy is not included in the list: “The difficulty of Italian history lies in the fact that until modern times the Italians have had no political unity, no independence, no organized existence as a nation. Split up into numerous and mutually hostile communities, they never, through the fourteen centuries which have elapsed since the end of the old Western Empire, shook off the yoke of foreigners completely; they never until lately learned to merge their local and conflicting interests in the common good of undivided Italy. Their history is therefore not the history of a single people, centralizing and absorbing its constituent elements by a process of continued evolution, but a group of cognate populations, exemplifying divers types of constitutional developments.”—Brit.