Destroyed by the Heruli and Ostrogoths, but revived again under the Third-Head, or Eighth King, in a Latino-Greek Dynasty. 3 The Romano-Greek * contemporaries of the Latin Cæsars and Herulic and Ostrogothic kings, were ..... Valens A. D. Arcadius........... .... 450 457 From Constantine the Great who removed the imperial seat to Constantinople, properly begins what we have called the Romano-Greek Empire; though for prophetical convenience the Romano-Greek Empire is made to begin B. C. 168, in the time of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes, when the Romans made their first conquests Greece. One reason of this is, the words of Daniel; his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power, which must mean the Greek power mighty by the Romans. For in fact, though the arms of the Romans subdued the Greeks, yet the arts of the Greeks subdued the Romans in turn; and their language, manners, and philosophy, eventually pervaded the Empire. Another reason is, that the twofold subversion of first the literal, and afterwards the spiritual sanctuary, by the little imperial Horn required him to be viewed in a Greek aspect throughout; as in the latter case the prophecy strictly demanded it, and in the former, this disposal is not dissonant to a philosophical view of the mutual conquests of these two nations of each other. THE THREE-ONE ANTICHRIST. THE BEAST THAT WAS AND IS NOT, The Latino - Greek Caesars or Emperors of the Romans. EARTH BEAST, IMAGE OF THE of Antichrist. קדוש רומי or SEA BEAST, The revived Western or German Empe rors or Caesars of the Romans. The ten kings or kingdoms which belong to the eighth king, form a part of Antichrist also, as far as the civil magistrates in them meddle with ecclesiastical matters 5" After the fall of the Western monarchy, the majesty of the purple resided solely in the princes of Constantinople; and of these, Justinian was the first, who, after a divorce of sixty years, regained the dominion of ancient Rome, and asserted by the right of conquest, the august title of Emperor of the Romans." Gibbon, Chap. LIII. "Justinian," says the historian Agathias (1, V. p. 157.), пęwтos Papasw αυτοκρατωρ ονοματι και πραγματι” (The first Emperor of the Romans in name and in deed.) "Yet the specific title of Emperor of the Romans was not used at Constantinople, till it had been claimed by the French and German Emperors of old Rome." Chap. LIII. Note 94. D Theodosius III. 715 Gregory III... 731 Leo III. ...... 717 Zacharias Constantine IV, 741 .... 741 A.D. ❝ On the coronation of Charlemagne in the church of St. Peter by Leo the Roman Pontiff, "the dome," says Gibbon, Vol. IX. Chap. xlix. p. 174. "resounded with the acclamations of the people, Long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Michael III... 842 Sergius II..... 844 Lothaire ...... 841 Leo IV...... 847 Benedict III... 853 Augustus, crowned by God the great and pacific emperor of the Romans !'-The imperial dignity of Charlemagne was announced to the East by the alteration of his style; and instead of saluting his fathers, the Greek emperors, he presumed to adopt the more equal and familiar appellation of brother." "A treaty of peace and alliance was concluded between the two empires, and the limits of the East and West were defined by the right of present possession. But the Greeks soon forgot this humiliating equality, or remembered it only to hate the Barbarians by whom it was extorted. During the short union of virtue and power, they respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne with the acclamations of basileus, and emperor of the Romans. As soon as these qualities were separated in the person of his pious son, the Byzantine letters were inscribed, to the King, or, as he styles himself, the Emperor of the Franks and Lombards.' The Greeks affected to despise the poverty and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons; and in their last decline refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany the title of Roman Emperors." pp. 191. 193. 194. Concerning the dignity of the German Emperors, says Gibbon, Chap. xlix. p. 216. "Nor was the supremacy of the Emperor confined to Germany alone: the hereditary monarchs of Europe confessed the preeminence of his rank and dignity: he was the first of the Christian princes, the temporal head of the great republic of the West: to his person the title of majesty was long appropriated; and he disputed with the pope the sublime prerogative of creating kings and assembling councils." |