Daniel 2: Roman Empire

Daniel 2:40
40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

Thighs of iron -  Roman Republic) 200 +/- B.C    Roman Empire 27 +/- B.C. (Caesar Augustus - First Emperor)
Notice first, that iron though inferior to the silver,  gold, brass easily can bruise these other metals. This is exactly how Rome ruled; by brute strength and an iron rule. The Roman Empire at its peak in the A.D. 100’s covered about half of Europe, much of the Middle East, and the north coast of Africa. The empire began to crumble, partly because it was to big for Rome to govern. What makes the Roman Empire different from the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian is that it was never conquered. The Babylonian empire was caught by the Persian Empire, the Persian Empire conquered by the Grecian empire, Grecian empire conquered by the Roman Empire. As we study the iron in the image, this fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire land area further divides into two as shown in the two legs of  iron, and later in its history further divides as shown in the two feet and ten toes of iron mixed with clay.