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The "little horn," before whom three of the first horns were
plucked up by the roots--(the Heruli, the Vandals and the
Ostrogoths which disappeared from existence), was the little horn
in whom "were the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things"
(verse 8); then again, "even of that horn that had eyes and a mouth
that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his
fellows" (verse 20)--that is, a smaller horn, who dominated over
the other horns, and before whom the first three were
disintegrated.
This "little horn" was of major importance. For "the same
horn made war with the saints (true Christians), and prevailed
against them, until the Ancient of days (CHRIST) came, ...and
judgment was given to the saints of the most high; and the time
came that the saints possessed the kingdom" (verses 21 and 22).
After the first three kingdoms following 476 A.D. had
disappeared, SEVEN "horns" were left--seven kingdoms or rulerships
to arise out of the original Roman Empire.
These seven formed the "Holy Roman Empire." The first was
Justinian, starting 554 A.D. The second was the Frankish kingdom
of Charlemagne, 800 A.D. The third was the German kingdom of Otto
the Great, the fourth was the Austrian Hapsburg kingdom of Charles
the Fifth, and the fifth that of Napoleon, ending 1814 A.D. That
ended, for the time being, the "Holy Roman Empire." But there
were recesses and lapses between Justinian's reign and the revival
in 800 A.D. under Charlemagne. These lapses or recesses are by
inference "valleys" between mountain peaks, as we shall see in
Revelation 17.
In 1935 Mussolini, on taking over Ethiopia, and including
Italian Somaliland and Eritrea, concluded a concordat with the
Vatican, called the restoration of the "Holy Roman Empire."
However, this was little noted at the time--I do not even remember
it to have been front page news--and it was an insignificant and
short-lived restoration of this "empire"--when the sixth of these
remaining seven horns could aptly be termed, as in Revelation 17
"the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."
Notice one more passage in Daniel 7 before leaving this
chapter: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the son
of man came with the clouds of heaven [Christ], and came to the
Ancient of days and they brought him near before him. And there
was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
nations and language should serve him; his dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed" (verses 13, 14).
Then finally Daniel's prophecy ends with "and the kingdom and
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom [of God] under the whole
heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most
High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions
will serve and obey him" (verse 27).
Now on to Revelation 13.