How did the Roman Empire's control compare with earlier empires?
The Roman Empire exercised control over the then-known world and its general population to a degree unmatched by any earlier empire. It was politically strong, diverse, and different from all previous empires, introducing a democratic form of government never before conceived, though it later ended between A.D. 300 and 400.
Les explains that Rome had control of the then-known world over the general population like no other empire before it. It was strong politically, devoured and broke pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. It was diverse, or different, from all the empires before it because it was the beginning of a democratic form of government that had never been dreamed of before. The semicolon in the verse jumped about 1,700 years from the Roman empire, which ended between 300 and 400 A.D., up to the present time and the appearance of the European community as the revived Roman empire. The ten horns, in Scripture, merely refer to kings.