before Alexander's day.

Grecia's expansion and its later history were next unfolded before the
prophet's vision:

_Prophecy._--"Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was
strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones
toward the four winds of heaven." Verse 8.

Of the ram (Persia) it was said it became "great;" of the goat (Grecia);
that it became "very great."

_History._--Justin, the Roman, wrote of Alexander:

"So much was the whole world awed by the terror of his name,
that all nations came to pay their obedience to
him."--_"History of the World," book 12, chap. 13._

"Vain in his hopes, the youth had grasped at all,
And his vast thought took in the vanquished ball."

--_Lucan's "Pharsalia" (Nicholas Rowe's translation), book 3._

But the unerring prophecy had said that "when he was strong, the great
horn was broken." Suddenly the youthful conqueror was cut down by death,
just as he was preparing to celebrate at Babylon a "convention of the
whole universe,"

"being thus taken off in the flower of his age, and in the
height of his victories."--_Justin, "History of the World,"
book 13, chap. 1._

The ancient pagan writers, in telling the story, make use of language
very similar to that used by divine prophecy in foretelling it.
Following Alexander's death the empire was divided "toward the four
winds of heaven." Myers says:

"Four well-defined and important monarchies arose out of the
ruins.... The great horn was broken; and instead of it came up
four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven."--_"History
of Greece" (edition 1902), p. 457._

As the prophet watched these four kingdoms of divided Greece, he beheld
another power coming into the field of his vision through one of the
four kingdoms, and extending its authority more than any before it:

_Prophecy._--"Out of one of them [one of the four kingdoms] came forth a
little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward
the east, and toward the pleasant land." Verse 9.

_History._--Medo-Persia was "great," Grecia was "very great," but this
power was to be "exceeding great." Rome followed Grecia. Polybius, the
Roman, says:

"Almost the whole inhabited world was conquered, and brought
under the dominion of the single city of Rome."--_"Histories of
Polybius" (Evelyn Shuckburgh's translation), book 1, chap. 1._

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