Prophetic Expositions, vol. 2

THE SEAT OF EMPIRE REMOVED FROM ROME TO CONSTANTINOPLE

Verse 29. “At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south: but it shall not be as the former or as the latter.” PREX2 65.1

“At the time appointed,” is the time mentioned in the last clause of verse 24; “even for a time.” A time is 360 days or years. The date of it, as already shown, was the battle of Actium, in the autumn of B. C. 31. The 360 years would carry us to A. D. 329; when, according to Daniel— PREX2 65.2

“He shall return and come toward the south.” The Roman government was to come back toward the south, Egypt, by the same way in which they returned from the great exploit, the destruction of Jerusalem and dispersion of the church from Jerusalem. But— PREX2 65.3

“It shall not be as the former”—As when the Romans went to Egypt for the conquest of that kingdom, and the extension of their power over the earth, and as the signal of its full triumph— PREX2 65.4

“Nor as the latter,”—When they overthrew the Jewish nation, and scattered abroad the church of God. But he shall come back as the signal of his own ruin. For such, in fact, was the removal of the seat of empire from the west to the east, by Constantine. The city of Constantinople was founded as the seat of imperial power, by Constantine, in Nov., A. D. 329. [Encyclopedia Americana, art. Constantinople.] PREX2 65.5

From this point, the pagan power of Rome received its death-blow; Constantine embraced the Christian faith, and established the Christian religion by law, as the religion of the empire. PREX2 65.6

On the death of Constantine, the Roman empire was divided among his three sons, Constantius, Constantine II., and Constans. Constantius possessed the east, and fixed his residence at Constantinople, the new metropolis of the empire. Constantine, the second, held Britain, Gaul and Spain. Constans held Illyrica, Africa and Italy. The two latter quarrelled, and Constans being the victor, enjoyed the dominion of the whole west. He possessed it, however, but a few years before he was slain by one of his own commanders. This rebel was soon defeated by the surviving emperor of the east, and in the rage of despair, ended his own days, A. D. 353. [See Sabine’s Eccl. Hist., p. 155.] PREX2 66.1

The barbarous hordes who overran Europe, soon after this began their depredations on the Roman empire, and continued them until, finally, the imperial power of the west expired under this scourge, in 476. Constantine forsook Rome and left it to be a prey to merciless hordes of barbarians and savages. PREX2 66.2