But the fulfillment of what was then made known spanned a period of many centuries. Consider the portion of the prophecy fulfilled within a period of about 300 years.

Daniel was told: “Look! There will yet be three kings standing up for Persia, and the fourth one will amass greater riches than all others. And as soon as he has become strong in his riches, he will rouse up everything against the kingdom of Greece.” (Dan. 11:2) Note that no mention is made about the end of the Medo-Persian Empire. The prophecy simply looks forward to the all-out effort that the fourth king would put forth against Greece.

Xerxes I did indeed “rouse up everything against the kingdom of Greece,” that is, the independent Grecian states collectively. The Greek historian Herodotus of the fifth century B.C.E. writes that “no other expedition compared to this seems of any account.” (Book VII, sec. 20) His history states that the sea force “amounted in all to 517,610 men. The number of the foot soldiers were 1,700,000; that of the horsemen 80,000; to which must be added the Arabs who rode on camels, and the Libyans who fought in chariots, whom I reckon at 20,000. The whole number, therefore, of the land and sea forces added together amounts to 2,317,610 men.” (Book VII, sec. 184) Despite the support of this huge war machine, Xerxes I suffered defeat.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE DIVISION OF HIS EMPIRE

Next the prophecy focuses on Greece. We read: “A mighty king [Alexander, the first son of Philip (king of Macedonia), according to the rendering of the Syriac] will certainly stand up and rule with extensive dominion and do according to his will. And when he will have stood up, his kingdom will be broken and be divided toward the four winds of the heavens, but not to his posterity and not according to his dominion with which he had ruled.”​—Dan. 11:3, 4, and marginal reading.

In fulfillment of these words, Alexander (III) the Great became the undisputed ruler over the tremendous area extending from the Adriatic Sea on the west to India on the east. After his death, however, his posterity did not succeed in establishing themselves in the kingship. Both the legitimate son Alexander IV and the illegitimate son Heracles were assassinated within a period of about fourteen years after their father’s death. Soon the empire that Alexander (III) had built up passed into the hands of four of his generals (1) Seleucus (I) Nicator, (2) Cassander, (3) Ptolemy Lagus (Ptolemy I Soter) and (4) Lysimachus. In this way it was “divided toward the four winds of the heavens.”