Revelation 17:9

"And here is the mind that hath wisdom" or here is the place to exercise your mind and gain wisdom. Here we will see great light on these problems. "The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman siteth," the well known seven hills of Rome. That is a geographical identification. I presume no one in John's day and we think no one in this day, could miss his meaning. The angel is telling John what that beast is that we have been talking about through all these Chapter s, and here he points out that the seven heads are seven hills. But there is another test of its identity, besides the geographical similarity there is a historical one that describes the beast in time rather than in place. This we have in verse ten: "And there are seven kings; five are fallen, and one is, and the other is yet to come, and when he cometh he must continue a short space." We had the beast located geographically on the seven hills, which meant Rome. Now we have him located in history to tell us what period of Rome we are dealing with. And there is no period of Rome's history that will fit this description but the dynasty of the Caesars. Julius Caesar was the founder of the empire, he is the head that was wounded to death. But though that head was wounded to death, the empire continued to live. The beast did not die with one of its heads. The autocratic power of Rome was more absolutely exercised by succeeding kings, than Julius Caesar could ever have dreamed.

John says five of these kings are fallen, viz. Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, all these five had passed away when John wrote this book; and one is, viz. Nero, who was then on the throne; and one is yet to come, Galba, and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. Accordingly Galba succeeded Nero, and his short space was a reign of seven months.

This mention of the seven hills and the seven kings, this geographical and historical identification, fixes with absolute precision the time of this writing and the subject with which it deals. There should be no more doubt about this after such plain indications in the text itself, that the beast is the Roman Empire, and not some King that is yet to reign over the world in the supposed "Tribulation" as the premillennialists say.

Even when the dynasty falls and the seven heads are all gone, the beast lives on. "He is the eighth and is of the seven." When Caesar's dynasty fell, another dynasty succeeded and the beast still lived. That Empire did not perish with the Caesars. Nero went down, Galba went down, but Vespasian, and Titus and Domitian and others continued the empire which still persecuted the Christian Church.