Chapter 106

¹ When these things had thus come to pass in those times for Nebuchadnezzar, as the blessed Daniel showed us in the vision, and as the king himself confessed it to be so, and when his rule had come to an end under Belshazzar—at the time when he himself was slain during the night because of the deed he had done, as has been indicated in the book before this one, and Darius the Mede, who was sixty-two years old, took over the kingdom—the prophet with good reason describes another beast coming up, which was the bear, so that in it he might display the kingdom of the Persians.

² “And there were three ribs,” he says, “in its mouth.” By three ribs he means three regions of nations over which this very beast ruled; these were the Medes, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians.

³ “And they spoke thus to it: ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’” For the Persians, rising up in those times, laid the whole land waste and destroyed it, making many of its people subject to themselves as slaves.

⁴ For just as the beast, the bear, is a filthy and flesh-eating animal, tearing with claws and teeth, so too the kingdom of the Persians came to be, who held power for two hundred and thirty years.—

⁵ But some of the historians have recorded that they held power for two hundred and forty-five years, up to the reign of Darius, whom Alexander the Macedonian overthrew in the seventh year and transferred the kingdom of the Persians to Greece. As Daniel also says: “After this I watched, and behold, another beast like a leopard, and it had four wings of a bird above it, and the beast had four heads, and authority was given to it.”

⁶ So by naming a leopard, he signified the kingdom of the Greeks, over which Alexander the Macedonian ruled; and he likened them to a leopard because they were sharp of mind and full of devices in their reasonings and bitter of heart, just as the animal too is dappled in form, yet quick to do harm and to drink human blood.

⁷ “And four wings of a bird,” he says, “above it, and the beast had four heads.” For after the kingdom of Alexander was exalted and increased and made famous throughout all the world, his kingdom was divided into four governments.

⁸ For Alexander, as he was dying, divided it among four men, his companions of his own race—Seleucus, Demetrius, Ptolemy, and Philip—and all of these put on diadems, just as Daniel foretells this and as it is recorded in the first book of the Maccabees.