Daniel was told: “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 prophetic words, in course of time after Alexander the Great’s death the empire that he had built up passed into the hands of four of his generals, who had established themselves in power by about 301 B.C.E. Seleucus Nicator took over Mesopotamia and Syria.

Since the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, Seleucus Nicator, controlled territory north of the homeland of Daniel’s people, he now began filling the role of the “king of the north.”