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of Raph. Eglinus. The one interpretation is too loose; the other too confined , although it is more convenient, inasmuch as it does not go beyond the seven hills [of Rome]. From either interpretation they were able to take an occasion, who with great agreement among themselves refer those seven heads to seven forms of the Roman polity, which are presented (see especially Borrhaus on this passage) by 1) Kings, 2) Consuls, 3) Decemvirs, 4) Military tribunes with consular power, 5) Dictators, 6) Emperors. We shall presently see the seventh. But, I. Seeing that Daniel, to whose antiquity it was suitable, already in his time sufficiently described the Roman affairs, what need is there to seek them in the Apocalypse, and to trace them back, not only beyond the beginnings of the third woe, but even from the beginnings of the fourth beast of Daniel, and indeed much further? for Daniel only subjoins the fourth beast to the third, as he does the third to the second, and the second to the first : but they who make the first head of the Apocalyptic beast to be the kings of Rome, ascend beyond the whole of the third beast of Daniel ; whereas even the last king and the first consuls at Rome coincide with the beginnings of the second beast, that is, the Persians. II. The number seven, as applied to the heads, is itself at fault in this view ; nor can consuls, decemvirs, and tribunes, be reckoned as three heads, but they must be regarded either as one, and this number of col- leagues does not vary the species of rule, or as about twenty ; more- over the others were often placed at intervals between the consuls : or if by this insertion the number of the forms is not increased, even kings (that you may class dictators with which division you please), together with emperors, would have to be reckoned as one head. Undoubtedly chronologists name the Roman epochs only from kings and consuls, and make other things subordinate to these, until they come to the emperors. See Com. de Sylvestris Chronol. p. 190, etc. However it be, it is not only from a difference between the heads, and from the number of the seven kings, that the beast and his last head are known ; although interpreters allege that one means only : but without circumlocutions of this kind the prophecy more plainly represents both the whore, and with her the beast. III. To the seventh head alone a short space of continuance [ch. xvii. 10] is ascribed ; but who, according to this system, will make a longer con- tinuance to the other heads ; for instance, if the decemvirs are a head, when Tacitus, in the introduction to his annals, asserts that their power did not prevail more than two years ? IV. When they come to the emperors, as if it were the sixth head, their ingenuity exerts
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