Another Third Kingdom of Brass

Greece

331 B.C. - 168 B.C.

Alexander the Great, the son of Philip, at twenty years of age succeeded Philip as king of Macedon and head of Greece, B.C. 336. Thus the last king of Persia and his conqueror that was to be, began to reign in the same year.

Alexander inherited all the ambition of both his father Philip and his mother Olympias; while the ambition of either of these was a sufficient portion for any human being. Indeed, it was more than sufficient for human beings; for each of them aspire to divinity.

Philip was in the very act of celebrating his own divinity when he was slain by Pausanias. Besides this, Philip was given both to drunkenness and licentiousness, in addition to his utter perfidy in politics. Ancient History, Philip- Rollin.

From such parentage as this on both sides, it is easy to understand the violent temper, the indulgence in strong drink, and the aspiration to be a god, that marks the whole public career of Alexander the Great.

From the age of thirteen "for at least three years," Alexander was "under the instruction of Aristotle, whom Philip expressly invited for the purpose." Thus he who is called the greatest conqueror in the world of arms was taught by him who has been called "the greatest conqueror in the world of thought."

When, at the sudden death of Philip, the crown was placed "on the head of Alexander the Great, no one knew what to expect from the young prince thus suddenly exalted at the age of twenty years. ... It remained to be proved whether the youthful son of Philip was capable of putting down opposition and upholding the powerful organization created by his father.

The Greeks were by no means inclined to transfer it [their allegiance] to a youth like Alexander, until he had shown himself capable of bringing the like coercion to bear, and extorting the same submission. Grote, History of Greece.

But "the Greeks of Thebes and Athens little knew what sort of man had taken the place of Philip. ... They had to reckon with one who could swoop on his prey with the swiftness of an eagle."

[There are] two features which characterized Alexander to the end of his life -- matchless celerity of movement, and no less remarkable favor of fortune. ...

In about one month he had swept the country from the borders of Macedonia through the midst of Thracia and Moesia to, and across, the Danube at about the twenty-sixth degree of longitude, there to attack the Getae. Ibid Grote.

The winter of 335 B.C. was employed by Alexander "in completing his preparations; so that early in the spring of 334 B.C., his army [was] destined for the conquest of Asia.

Thus in the spring of 334 B.C., on the soil of the Persian Empire, stood Alexander the Great, "as the chief of united Greece," and "the conqueror abroad in the name of Greece," extending the Greek power over all the nations of the East, and carrying to them Greek art, the Greek language, and Greek civilization. And so, according to the word of the Lord, spoken two hundred years before, "the prince of Grecia" HAD "come." Dan. 10:20

About seventy-five or eighty miles from the place where Alexander landed in Asia Minor, the river Granicus pours into the Sea of Marmora. There, early in his fourth day's march, May 22, B.C. 334, he found the Persian army drawn up in battle array, on the eastern bank of the river. "On approaching the river he mad his preparations for immediate attack." Alexander's forces having arrived at the brink of the river, the two armies stood for some time "watching each other in anxious silence." Then Alexander gave the word of command, and with wild war-shouts, and sound of trumpets, his troops rushed into the river and across, and in a little while had gained the opposite bank. The Persian army was annihilated. Of the Persian troops about twenty thousand were killed, and about two thousand were taken prisoners; while of Alexander's soldiers there were only one hundred and fifteen killed, and about one thousand one hundred and fifty wounded. "No victory could be more decisive or terror-striking than that of Alexander" at the Granicus. "There remained no force in the field to oppose him. ... Such exploits, impressive even when we read of them now, must at the moment when they occurred have acted most powerfully upon the imagination of contemporaries." Grote, History of Greece Haydn, Dictionary of Dates; Rollin's-Ancient History, Alexander.

He continued to conquer everything in his path to the southeast and southwest, Sardis then Ephesus on his way to Perga "where he arrived about the latter part of February, 333 B.C.

Whole towns evacutated before Alexanders army. "The Scripture explains it: The angel of God was sketching this period to Daniel, he said that when he had told the prophet what he was commanded to tell him, he would return to the court of Persia; and then he said, "When I am gone forth, lo! the price of Grecia shall come." The angel had remained with the kingdom of Persia, and at that corrupt court, as long as he could possibly endure it. When intemperance and iniquity of all sorts so abounded there that it could no longer be endured by the holy messenger, he went forth. And when he had gone forth, and Persia and her king were abandoned to themselves and their pernicious ways, and the prince of Grecia had come, there was no wisdom, nor knowledge, nor power, to resist him. What was wisdom seemed to the Persians foolishness; and what was foolishness seemed to them the only wisdom.

On he marched towards Syria. "The Persian army was annihilated by Alexander; this time with a loss to himself of only four hundred and fifty killed, and five hundred and four wounded. "No victory recorded in history was ever more complete in itself, or more far-stretching in its consequences, than that of Issus. Not only was the Persian force destroyed or dispersed, but the efforts of Darius for recovery were paralyzed by the capture of his family. Portions of the dissipated army of Issus may be traced, reappearing in different places for operations of detail; but we shall find no further resistance to Alexander, during almost two years, except from the brave freemen of two fortified cities. Everywhere an overwhelming sentiment of admiration and terror was spread abroad, toward the force, skill, or good fortune of Alexander, by whichever name it might be called." Grote- History of Greece.

As the battle of Granicus gave to Alexander all Asia Minor, so the battle of Issus laid at his feet Egypt and all Asia west of the Euphrates.

All the cities of Syria and Phenicia were surrendered to Alexander without a battle, except Tyre, which he was obliged to besiege seven months through terrible hardships. While he was marching through Phenicia, Alexander was overtaken by envoys from Darius with a letter asking that his family might be released and allowed to return to him. Alexander replied:
"By the grace of the gods I have been victorious, first over your satraps, next over yourself. I have taken care of all who submit to me, and made them satisfied with their lot. Come yourself to me also, as to the master of all Asia. Come without fear of suffering harm. Ask me, and you shall receive back your mother and wife, and anything else which you please. When next you write to me, however, address me not as an equal, but as lord of Asia and of all that belongs to you; otherwise I shall deal with you as with a wrong-doer. If you intend to contest the kingdom with me, stand and fight for it, and do not run away. I shall march forward against you, wherever you may be." Grote- History of Greece.

The Jews, learning of the coming of Alexander in wrath, were greatly troubled to know what to do. The high priest proclaimed a fast, and "ordained that the people should make supplications, and should join with him in offering sacrifices to God, whom he sought to protect that nation, and to deliver them from the perils that were coming upon them. Whereupon God warned him in a dream which came upon him after he had offered sacrifice, that he should take courage, and adorn the city, and open the gates; that the rest should appear in white garments; but that he and the priests should meet the king in the habits proper to their order, without the dread of any ill consequences, which the providence of God would prevent. Upon which, when he rose from his sleep, he greatly rejoiced, and declared to all the warning he had received from God. According to which dream he acted entirely, and so waited for the coming of the king.

"And when he understood that he was not far from the city, he went out in procession with the priests and the multitude of citizens. The procession was venerable, and the manner of it different from that of other nations. It reached to a place called Sapha, which name, translated into Greek, signifies a prospect; for you have thence a prospect both of Jerusalem and of the temple. And when the Phenicians and the Chaldeans that followed him (Alexander) thought they should have liberty to plunder the city, and torment the high priest to death, which the king's displeasure fairly promised them, the very reverse of it happened. For Alexander, when he saw the multitude at a distance, in white garments, while the priests stood clothed with fine linen, and the high priest in purple and scarlet clothing, with his miter on his head, having the golden plate whereon the name of God was engraved, he approached by himself and adored that name, and first saluted the high priest. The Jews also did altogether with one voice salute Alexander and encompassed him about.

"Whereupon the kings of Syria and the rest were surprised at what Alexander had done, and supposed him disordered in his mind. However, Parmenio alone went up to him and asked him how it came to pass that when all others adored him, he should adore the high priest of the Jews. To whom he replied: 'I did not adore him, but that God who hath honored him with his high-priesthood. For I saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I was at Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering with myself how I might obtain the dominion of Asia, exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the sea thither, for that he would conduct my army and would give me the dominion over the Persians; whence it is that having seen no other in that habit, and now seeing this person in it, and remembering that vision, and the exhortation which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army under the Divine conduct, and shall therewith conquer Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that all things will succeed according to what is in my mind.'

"And when he had said this to Parmenio, and had given the high priest his right hand, the priests ran along by him, and he came into the city. And when he went up into the temple, he offered sacrifice to God according to the high priest's direction, and magnificently treated both the high priest and the priests. And when the book of Daniel was showed him, wherein Daniel declared that one of the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he supposed that himself was the person intended. And as he was then glad, he dismissed the multitude for the present, but the next day he called them to him and bade them ask what favors they pleased of him. Whereupon the high priest desired that they might enjoy the laws of their forefathers, and might pay no tribute on the seventh year. He granted all they desired. And when they entreated him that he would permit the Jews in Babylon and Media to enjoy their own laws also, he willingly promised to do hereafter what they desired. And when he said to the multitude that if any of them would enlist themselves in his army on this condition, that they should continue under the laws of their forefathers, and live according to them, he was willing to take them with him, many were ready to accompany him in his wars." Josephus- Antiquities of the Jews.

"The prodigious army of Darius was all either killed, taken, or dispersed, at the battle of Arbela. ... The defeat of Arbela was in fact the death-blow of the Persian Empire. It converted Alexander into the great king, and Darius into nothing better than a fugitive pretender." "The decisive character of the victory was manifested at once by the surrender of the two great capitals of the Persian Empire, Babylon and Susa." Ibid Grote.

"A few days after the battle, Alexander entered Babylon, 'the oldest seat of earthly empire' then in existence, as its acknowledged lord and master. Creasy- Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, Arbela.

At Arbela the crown of Cyrus passed to the Macedonian. ... The he goat with the notable horn between his eyes had come from the west to the ram which had two horns, and had run unto him with the fury of his power. He had come close to him, and, moved with choler, had smitten the ram and broken his two horns; there was no power in the ram to stand before him; but he had cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him, and there was none to deliver the ram out his hand." Rawlinson- Seven Great Monarchies, Fifth Monarchy.

Here are two scenes:
SCENE FIRST: In the year 603 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, king of the mighty kingdom, and builder of the wonderful city, of Babylon, sits in his pleasant palace. Before him, and speaking earnestly, stands a young Jew. To the intently listening king, the young man is interpreting a remarkable dream that the great king had dreamed: he says that God is thus making known to the king what should come to pass afterward; and that one among these things would be the rise of a "third kingdom," and that this third kingdom should "bear rule over all the earth."

SCENE SECOND: Two hundred and seventy years afterward, in that same great city of Babylon, perhaps in the same palace where Nebuchadnezzar had sat, there sits Alexander the Great, king of the third kingdom from Nebuchadnezzar. As there he sits upon his throne, before him stands ambassadors "from all the extremities of the earth," who are come "to propitiate his anger, to celebrate his greatness, or to solicit his protection."

Now look on this picture, then on that; and no man can say that the scene represented in the second is not the perfect consummation of that which was spoken in the first. "I believe that there was in his time no nation of men, no city, nay, no single individual, with whom Alexander's name had not become a familiar word. I therefore hold that such a man, who was like no ordinary mortal, was not born into the world without some special providence." Arrian The dream was certain, the interpretation was sure, and the fulfilment absolute. Quoted by Creasy in Fifteen Decisive Battles, Arbela.

In the month of June, 323 B.C., he celebrated the funeral of Hephaestion at Babylon, at which "victims enough were offered to furnish a feast for the army, who also received ample distributions of wine," because "to drink to intoxication at a funeral was required as a token of respectful sympathy toward the deceased." "Alexander presided in person at the feast, and abandoned himself to conviviality like the rest. Already full of wine, he was persuaded by his friend Medius to sup with him, and to pass the whole night in yet further drinking, with the boisterous indulgence called by the Greeks Comus, or Revelry.

"Having slept off his intoxication during the next day, he in the evening again supped with Medius, and spent a second night in the like unmeasured indulgence," "till at last he found a fever coming upon him. It did not, however, seize him as he was drinking the cup of Hercules, nor did he find a sudden pain in his back as if it had been pierced with a spear. These are circumstances invented by writers who thought the catastrophe of so noble a tragedy should be something affecting and extraordinary. Aristobulus tells us that in the rate of his fever and the violence of his thirst, he took a draught of wine which threw him into a frenzy, and that he died the thirtieth of the month Daesius (June).

"But in his journals the account of his sickness is as follows:
"On the eighteenth of the month Daesius, finding the fever upon him, he lay in his bath-room.

"The next day, after he had bathed, he removed into his own chamber, and played many hours with Medius at dice. In the evening he bathed again, and after having sacrificed to the gods, he ate his supper. In the night the fever returned.

"The twentieth he also bathed, and after the customary sacrifice, sat in the bath-room, and diverted himself with hearing Nearchus tell the story of his voyage, and all that was most observable with respect to the ocean.

"The twenty-first was spent in the same manner. The fever increased, and he had a very bad night.

"The twenty-second the fever was violent. He ordered his bed to be removed and placed by the great bath. There he talked to his generals about the vacancies in his army, and desired they might be filled up with experienced officers.

"The twenty-fourth, he was much worse. He chose, however, to be carried to assist at the sacrifice. He likewise gave orders that the principal officers of the army should wait within the court, and the others keep watch all night without.

"The twenty-fifth, he was removed to his palace, on the other side of the rifer, where he slept a little; but the fever did not abate, and when his generals entered the room, he was speechless.

"He continued so the following day. The Macedonians, by this time thinking he was dead, came to the gates with great clamor, and threatened the great officers in such a manner that they were forced to admit them, and suffer them all to pass unarmed by the bedside.

"The twenty-seventh, Pithon and Seleucus were sent to the temple of Serapis to inquire whether they should carry Alexander thither, and the deity ordered that they should not remove him.

"The twenty-eighth, in the evening, he died.

"These particulars are taken almost word for word from his diary." Plutarch- Lives, Alexander.

"One of his last words spoken is said to have been, on being asked to whom he bequeathed his kingdom, 'To the strongest;' one of his last acts was to take the signetring from his finger and hand it to Perdiccas." Grote- History of Greece.

Thus died Alexander, at the age of thirty-two years and eight months, after a reign of twelve years and eight months. Though so young in years, his swift and constant campaigning, from almost the day of his accession, in all countries between Corinth and the river Hyphasis, and in all climates, from the fierce winters of Cappadocia and the mountains of the Hindu-Kush to the burning sands of Central Asia and the sultry heat of India, with several severe wounds and much hard drinking, had carried him far beyond the freshness of youth that should otherwise have yet attached to his thirty-two years. He was a man of Providence; and what a pity he did not profit by his opportunities as did Nebuchadnezzar!

The confederate princes -- Ptolemy, Cassander, Lysimachus, and Seleucus -- then agreed to allow Antigonus to claim as his dominion all Asia Minor, until the young Alexander should be old enough to reign. This agreement was all disconcerted, however, by Cassander's murdering both Alexander and Roxana (310 B.C.).

Cassander and Lysimachus now sent ambassadors to Seleucus and Ptolemy to show to them that Antigonus, now that his son Demetrius was become so great, would certainly be content with nothing less than the whole empire; and that therefore it was high time to bring him down. They reported that already, in the language of the court flatterers of Demetrius, Ptolemy was but "a captain of a ship," Seleucus "a commander of elephants," and Lysimachus "a treasurer." The result was that a strict confederacy was formed of these four -- Ptolemy, Seleucus, Lysimachus, and Cassender. This was in the year 302 b.c.

Then 301 B.C., twenty-two years after the death of Alexander the Great, when all his house, whether relatives or posterity, had perished, the empire conquered by "the prince of Grecia" was divided among themselves, by Ptolemy, Selecus, Lysimachus, and Cassander, toward the four winds of heaven," as follows:

NORTH: Lysimachus -- Thrace, Bithynia, and some smaller provinces of Asia Minor.

SOUTH: Ptolemy -- Egypt, Libya, Arabia, And Palestine.

EAST: Seleucus -- Syria and all the country to the river Indus.

WEST: Cassander -- Macedon and Greece.

And thus was fulfilled to the letter the word of the prophecy of Daniel: "The rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power." (2) And "a mighty king [of Grecia] 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, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those." Dan. *:21, 22; Dan. 11:3, 4.Taken from Empires of Prophecy By A. T. Jones pages 152-187.