During his reign as dictator, Julius Caesar consolidated his power in various ways that shifted Rome toward autocracy. Then Caesar declared himself dictator for life and was immediately assassinated in 44 B.C. I believe the beast begins its existence around this time as the beast represents a return of Rome to autocracy1 as the seven-heads of the beast is a reference to the seven-founding kings of Rome, the city of seven hills, prior to Rome becoming a Republic (Revelation 17:9).
If the beast begins to exist at the time of its first king, this implies that the beast dies at the death of its last king. I believe the beast is Rome under the Caesar and Flavian Dynasties. Thus the beast comes into existence sometime around the reign of the first Ceasar, Julius Caesar, then dies at the reign of the last of the Caesar Family Dynasty, Nero Caesar. The death of Nero and the civil war that resulted from it is the time in which the beast is in the Abyss or dead. But because the beast is a Hydra or Leviathan it does not stay dead at the wounding of its head (Revelation 13:3), the beast grows two new heads while coming back to life at the start of the Flavian Dynasty with Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. The beast then dies again at the end of the Flavian Dynasty at the death of Domitian in A.D. 96. At this time the kingdom of the beast appears to have been conquered by/handed over to the saints and grows quickly like yeast through dough into the Kingdom of God by way of the conversion of the Roman Empire into Christianity. The fact that the death of the beast is a consequence of the handing over of its kingdom or territory to the saints seems implied in the following verses:
26 “‘But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. 27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.’(Daniel 7:26-27.) [Emphasis mine.]
11 “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire. 12 (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)
13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Daniel 7:11-14.)
35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. . . . 44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. (Daniel 2:35-45.)
The shattering of the statue of Daniel 2 is equivalent of the death of the beast. Both the shattering of the statue and the death of the beast denote the conquest of the kingdom of the beast by the saints at the death of Domitian. The conquest of the kingdom of the beast is described in Matthew 13:33: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” Here we see the kingdom of God spreads through conversion throughout the corpse of the kingdom of beast, the Roman Empire. This rapid conversion of the Roman Empire before and after the death of Domitian seems to have been made possible by the conquest of the Devil’s kingdom by Christ and His saints (Revelation 12:7-12).
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The siege of Jerusalem by Pompey was in 63 B.C. After that time Judaea remained autonomous but was forced to pay tribute became dependent on Roman Syria, and lost control over a vast extent of territory. Then in 40 B.C. the Romans deposed the Hasmonean dynasty by declaring Herod the Great, King of the Jews. The third beast of Daniel 7 is a four-headed leopard (Daniel 7:4) which represents the Greek Empire. The four heads of the leopard represent Alexander the Great’s four generals who divided-up his kingdom after Alexander’s death. The fact that the beast representing Greece has four heads is interesting as this kingdom began with one king or one head, Alexander the Great. The fact that it has four heads in Daniel 7 implies that the beast can begin its existence prior to the existence of its heads as is clearly the case in Daniel 7’s reference to the Greek Empire in Daniel 7:4. It is not certain exactly when the fourth beast came into being, but whenever it did, it is not necessary that it begin with Julius Caesar in the same way that the leopard with four heads symbolizing the Greek Empire began with Alexander the Great despite of the fact that he is not one of the four heads of the leopard. Perhaps one could also then argue that the beast could also come to an end prior to the death of its last head?
There is a moment in AD 70 when the beast appears to die again referenced in Revelation 19. But remember the sea beast is the Hydra or Leviathan. In other words, the sea beast’s natural habitat is the Abyss or sea. It returns to the Abyss or Sea in A.D. 70 when Titus leaves Jerusalem to celebrate the Flavian Triumph in Rome predicted in Revelation 13. Notice when predicting the Flavian Triumph, Revelation 13 opens with the following: “And I saw a beast coming out of the sea.” The Flavian Triumph was in A.D. 71 therefore this spectacle in which the beast rises out of the sea is after the beast’s casting into the Abyss in Revelation 19:20 which seems to predict the departure of Vespasian and Titus from Israel enroute to Rome ending in A.D. 70. Their arrival is symbolized by the beast rising out of the Abyss or sea in Revelation 13:1. The beast does not truly die and stay dead until A.D. 96 which, I believe, is predicted in verses like Daniel 7:11, 26 and Daniel 2:34-35.