2. Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
3. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
--Symbolical of Four powerful dynasties.--
4. The first _was_ like a lion, and had eagle's wings:
I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked,
--Persia defeated by Greece at Marathon.--
and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given unto it.
--Was transformed by Greek art and civilization.
5. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear,
--The Hellenes, or Greece and her colonies in their palmy days--
and _it had_ three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it:
--3 columns of strength, viz:--Athens, Sparta and Thebes. The vision made its appearance 21 years before the Alliance was formed. The ribs therefore, had not knit in place when the heavenly visitor made known the fact of their future union. The alliance lasted 93 years, see Thucydides III. 69.--
and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh
--destroy hundreds of thousands in your Persian and civil wars.
6. After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard,
which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Philip king of Macedon subjugated the disunited Greek States at the battle of Chaeronea in B.C. 338, and Alexander the Great conquered a kingdom extending from Greece to India in B.C. 336.
7. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible,
and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it _was_ diverse
from all the beasts that _were_ before it; and it had 10 horns.
--verse 24, the rulers following the Jugurthine war.
8. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn,
before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn _were_ eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things
--the triumvirate ended with the battle of Actium Sept. 3rd, B.C. 31. Divine honors were accorded to Augustus. He took 3 censuses of the Roman Empire and possessed the most intimate knowledge of its resources, the last inventory was found in his own handwriting. Suetonius, Aug. XVI.----Livy CXXXII.