Our Day

offered to aid in bearing the expense of the campaign. Xerxes asked who
this man of such wealth was. He was answered:

     "This is the man, O king! who gave thy father Darius the golden
     plane tree, and likewise the golden vine; and he is still the
     wealthiest man we know of in all the world, excepting
     thee."--_Herodotus, book 7, par. 27._

"Richer than they all," Xerxes, "through his riches," was able, as the
prophecy had foretold, to "stir up all against the realm of Grecia."
Forty-nine nations marched under his banners to the attack. The Greek
poet, AEschylus, who himself fought against the Persians, wrote of
Xerxes' mighty host,

    "And myriad-peopled Asia's king, a battle-eager lord,
    From utmost east to utmost west sped on his countless horde,
    In unnumbered squadrons marching, in fleets of keels untold,
    Knowing none dared disobey,
    For stern overseers were they
    Of the godlike king begotten of the ancient race of Gold."

    --_"Persae," Way's translation._

Xerxes boasted that he was leading "the whole race of mankind to the
destruction of Greece." But his invasion ended in the total rout of his
forces by land and by sea. It was an advertisement to the world that
Persia's might was broken. The prophecy treats it so, and deals no
further with Persian history.

AEschylus at the time celebrated the passing of Persia's prestige in the
lines,--

      "With sacred awe
      The Persian law
    No more shall Asia's realms revere;
      To their lord's hand
      At his command,
    No more the exacted tribute bear.

           *       *       *       *       *

    Before the Ionian squadrons Persia flies,
    Or sinks engulfed beneath the main;
    Fallen! fallen! is her imperial power,
    And conquest on her banners waits no more."

    --_"Persae," Potter's translation._

The next great world change was to be the rise of Grecia to dominion.
So, although a number of kings followed Xerxes in Persia, the prophecy
passes from his disastrous invasion directly to the coming of Grecia
under its "mighty king," Alexander the Great.


Grecia

_Prophecy._--"A mighty king shall stand up, that shall rule with great
dominion, and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his
kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of
heaven; and not to his posterity." Dan. 11:3, 4.

_History._--Alexander the Great stood up and ruled with great dominion,
over a kingdom stretching from India to Grecia, with kings yet farther
west sending embassies to Babylon to make submission. But in the height
of his power, as the prophecy suggests, he was suddenly cut down by
death. All his posterity perished, and out of the struggles of his
generals for supremacy came (301 B.C.) the division of the
empire toward "the four winds," as the prophecy had declared so long
before. Rawlinson, the historian, says:

     "A quadripartite division of Alexander's dominion was
     recognized: Macedonia [west], Egypt [south], Asia Minor
     [north], and Syria [stretching eastward beyond the
     Euphrates]."--_"Sixth Monarchy," chap. 3._


The Kings of the North and South

Next, a rearrangement of these powers is noted; and it is this that
gives us the key to the study of the closing portion of the long
prophetic outline dealing with events of our own day. The narrative
continues:

_Prophecy._--"The king of the south shall be strong, and one of his
princes ... shall be strong above him;... his dominion shall be a great
dominion." Verse 5.

_History._--The history testifies that the king of the south (Egypt,
under Ptolemy) was strong; but one of the four princes was "strong above
him." Seleucus, of Syria and the east, pushed his dominion northward,
subduing most of Asia Minor, and extending his boundary into Thrace, on
the European side, beyond the Dardanelles. Henceforward, as Mahaffy
says,

     "there were three great kingdoms--Macedonia, Egypt,
     Syria--which lasted, each under its own dynasty, till Rome
     swallowed them up."--_"Alexander's Empire," p. 89._

Thus Seleucus took the territory of the north, and the Syrian power
became king of the north, its empire extending from Thrace, in Europe,