Your Answer:  Kingdoms to Come

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You are the head of gold. 39"After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth.  40"Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. 41"In that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay. 42"As the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. 43"And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery.  Daniel 2:38-43 (NAS)

The Image in the Dream:

The head of gold was the king of Babylon and the other sections of the image represented different kingdoms to arise after Babylon:

1. The Gold Head: The gold head represented the king of Babylon.

2. The Silver Chest: The silver chest and arms (the 2nd section under the head) represents a kingdom to arise after Babylon; this kingdom would be inferior to Babylon.  Daniel 5:28 and Daniel 8:20 identifies this 2nd kingdom as the Medes and Persians.

3. The Belly and Thighs of Brass: The belly and thighs of brass (third section) would be a third kingdom, which shall rule over all the earth.  Daniel chapter 8 identifies this third kingdom as Greece (see Daniel 8:21).

4. The Legs of Iron and the Feet of Iron and Clay: The legs of iron (fourth section) would be a fourth kingdom, a strong kingdom that will break in pieces and crush other kingdoms. The feet of iron and clay mean that it would be a divided kingdom, partly strong and partly broken. Although it is not specifically named, the last major empire to emerge would be Rome.

The Empires:

Here is what you find from history if you look at the major world empires that arose after Babylon:

1. Babylonian Empire:

The Babylonian Empire was built primarily by the efforts of Hammurabi (1728-1686 B.C.) and Nebuchadnezzar II (604-562 B.C.). The Empire declined with the fall of Nebuchadnezzar, fell to a lower level under Belshazzer, and came to ruin when Xerxes, the Persian King, destroyed it in 478 B.C.

2. Medo-Persian Empire:

The Empire of the Medes and Persians (the Medo-Persian Period) began with a man called Deioces son of Phraortes" (around 715 B.C.) who founded the Median kingdom and its capital city at Ecbatana, which today is called Hamadan. It was probably not before 625 B.C. that Cyaxares, grandson of Deioces, succeeded in uniting into a kingdom the many Iranian-speaking Median tribes. In 614 he captured Ashur, and in 612, in alliance with Nabopolassar of Babylon, his forces stormed Nineveh, putting an end to the Assyrian empire. The victors divided the Assyrian provinces among themselves, with the Median king taking over a large part of Iran, northern Assyria, and parts of Armenia. By the victory in 550 of the Persian chief Cyrus II the Great over his suzerain, Astyages of Media, the Medes were made subject to the Persians. The first prominent leader of the Persians was the warrior chief Hakhamanish, or Achaemenes, who lived about 681 B.C. The Persians were dominated by the Medes until the accession to the Persian throne in 550 B.C. of Cyrus the Great. He overthrew the Median rulers, conquered the kingdom of Lydia in 546 B.C. and that of Babylonia in 539 B.C. and established the Persian Empire as the preeminent power of the world. Darius I, who ascended the throne in 521 B.C., pushed the Persian borders as far eastward as the Indus River. From 499 to 493 B.C. he engaged in crushing a revolt of the Ionian Greeks living under Persian rule in Asia, and then launched a punitive campaign against the European Greeks for supporting the rebels. His forces were disastrously defeated by the Greeks at the historic Battle of Marathon in 490B.C.. Darius died while preparing a new expedition against the Greeks; his son and successor, Xerxes I, attempted to fulfill his plan but met defeat in the great sea engagement, the Battle of Salamís, in 480 B.C. and in two successive land battles in the following year. The forays of Xerxes were the last notable attempt at expansion of the Persian Empire. Many revolts took place in the next century; the final blow was struck by Alexander the Great, who added the Persian Empire to his own Mediterranean realm by defeating the troops of Darius III in a series of battles between 334 and 331B.C..

3. The Greek Empire:

Greek history is thought to have begun somewhere in the 12th century B.C. The first Greek Olympiad was held in 776 B.C. The golden age of Greece was an era of great statesmen, philosophers and dramatists in the 5th century B.C. Alexander the Great assumed command of the Greek army in 336 B.C. and conquered lands to the east that had formerly been under the rule of Persia, Babylon, Assyria and Egypt. Alexander the Great had conquered most of the known world by 331 B.C. Alexander died in 323 B.C. and his empire was divided among his four generals.

4. Roman Empire:

The history of Rome began in 753 B.C. As late as 390 B.C., when Greece and Persia were great powers in the world, Rome was still very weak. However, during the 4th and 3d centuries B.C., the Romans became masters of central and southern Italy. Roman armies entered Greece, where they were both conquerors and conquered: they defeated the Greek armies, but they were overawed by Greek culture and brought back to Rome a taste for fine art and literature. In 202 B.C. at the Battle of Zama, Rome defeated Carthage. During the next two centuries the Roman Empire expanded rapidly, gobbling up many of the territories once ruled by Alexander the Great, including Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. In 60 B.C. a triumvirate (three-man executive board) consisting of Gaius Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus led Rome. In 44 B.C. Caesar was murdered by a group of senators. The empire he had founded, with its autocratic tendencies, lasted long after his death. Imperial Rome lasted from 44 B.C. until A.D. 476. During the first 3 centuries of imperial Rome, 50 emperors occupied the throne, and 37 of them died violent deaths. Rome's fall would come at the hands of barbarian invaders. During the 2nd century A.D. Goths looted Greece and Asia Minor. During the 3rd century A.D. the Parthians reached Antioch. By the 5th century A.D. the barbarians roamed at will through the western part of the Roman Empire. Rome fell to Alaric I in 410 A.D., and after a reprieve of a few decades, in A.D. 476 the Goths deposed the last Roman emperor of the west.

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