Letter 218: What seems broad and pleasant often turns out to be narrow and painful.

To Dorotheus. On the vision of the four beasts. The celebrated vision of the inspired Daniel [Daniel 7] likened the kingdom of the Assyrians and that of the Medes and that of the Macedonians, as being of a single form and each composed out of one nation, to a single beast: the one to a bear, the second to a lioness, and the other to a leopard. But the fourth vision-a beast fearful and exceedingly astounding, fenced about with iron teeth and armed with bronze yokes, devouring and grinding fine and trampling down, like no living creature-this it plainly signified to be the empire of the Romans, composed out of all nations and tribes, and possessing in itself every strength and glory. For he did not see it set forth under a single name, since it stretches the yoke of its dominion over all peoples and has advanced into a boundless empire at the time of the Lord's incarnation.

Περὶ τῆς ὁράσεως τῶν δ' θηρίων. Τοῦ θεσπεσίου Δανιὴλ ἡ περιβόητος ὅρασις, τὴν Ἀσσυρίων καὶ Μήδων καὶ Μακεδόνων βασιλείαν, ὡς μονοειδῆ (6) καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς ἑκάστην ἔθνους συντεταγμένην [ἐνὶ καὶ] θηρίῳ παρεῖκασεν, τὴν μὲν ἄρκτῳ, τὴν δὲ λεαίνῃ, τὴν δὲ ἑτέραν παρδάλει. Τὴν δὲ τετάρτην ὅρασιν, θηρίον φοβερόν, καὶ περισσῶς ἔκθαμβον ἔχουσαν, ὀδοῦσι σιδηροῖς ἡρκωμένον, καὶ ζυγοῖς χαλκοῖς προσωπλισμένον, ἐσθίον καὶ λεπτῦνον καὶ καταπατοῦν, οὐδενὶ ζώῳ ὡμοιωμένην τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἐπιδήλως ἐσήμανεν, ἐκ πάντων ἐθνῶν καὶ φυλῶν συντεταγμένην, καὶ πᾶσαν ἀλκὴν καὶ δόξαν ἐν ἑαυτῇ κεκτημένην. Οὐ γὰρ ἑνὶ ὀνόματι παραστῆσαι ἑώρακε τὴν ἐπὶ πάητας τὸν ζυγὸν τοῦ κράτους ἐκτείνουσαν, καὶ εἰς ἀπέραντον βασιλείαν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς σαρκώσεως τοῦ Κυρίου προχώρησαν.