t having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia."
Verse 20. "The higher came up last."

The two horns represented the dual character of the empire: first the
Medes in ascendancy, then the Persians rising to yet greater power. "So
that no beast might stand before him," says the prophecy.

_History._--Xenophon says of Cyrus the Persian:

"He was able to extend the fear of himself over so great a part
of the world that he astonished all, and no one attempted
anything against him."--_"The Cyropaedia," book 1, chap. 1._

The line of Medo-Persian conquest was "westward, and northward, and
southward," just as the prophet saw the ram pushing its way. As one pen
wrote in the days of Persia's supremacy:

"He [Darius] showed the world arms glory-crowned."
"Towns untold before him fell."
"Burgs over sea ... heard from his lips their fate."

--_"The Persians," by AEschylus._

But the ram pushing westward stirred up an antagonist that was
eventually to overcome him. The prophet continues:

_Prophecy._--"As I was considering, behold, a he goat came from the west
on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground: and the goat
had a notable horn between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had two
horns,... and ran unto him in the fury of his power.... And there was
no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the
ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the
ram out of his hand." Verses 5-7.

The angel's interpretation continued: "The rough goat is the king of
Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king."
Verse 21.

_History._--This "first king" of united Grecia was Alexander the Great.

"With Alexander the New Greece begins."--_Harrison, "Story of
Greece," p. 499._

"And it happened, after that Alexander ... had smitten Darius
king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead,
the first over Greece." 1 Maccabees 1:1.

Under Alexander, the Grecian goat ran upon the Persian ram "in the fury
of his power." At Arbela, wrote Arrian, the Macedonians charged "with
great fury." None was able to deliver the Persian ram. "Wherever you
fly," wrote Alexander to the retreating Darius, "thither I will surely
pursue you." (See "Anabasis of Alexander the Great," by Arrian, book 2,
chap. 14.) Medo-Persia fell before Grecia, as this sure word of prophecy
had foretold two hundred years