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Between the Testaments

Alexander the Great conquers the Persian Empire

334–330 BCUssher date

Daniel 8:5–7, 20–21; 11:2–3

Alexander of Macedon crossed into Asia with a small army and, in three great battles, brought down the Persian Empire, as Daniel's vision of the ram and the goat had foretold.

As I was considering, behold, a male goat came from the west over the surface of the whole earth, and didn’t touch the ground. The goat had a notable horn between his eyes.

Daniel 8:5 (World English Bible)
CASSANDERLYSIMACHUSSELEUCUSPTOLEMYINDIAPellaGranicus 334Issus 333TyreJerusalemAlexandriaGaugamela 331BabylonAlexander dies, 323SusaPersepolisBactraSamarkandHydaspes 326Mediterranean SeaBlack SeaCaspianArabian SeaGold: Alexander's campaigns, 334–326 BC (dashed) and his return, 325–323 BC (solid).Dashed gray: the four kingdoms after the battle of Ipsus, 301 BC. Borders approximate.Coastlines simplified
Alexander's campaigns, 334–323 BC, and the four kingdoms his generals divided the empire into after Ipsus (Daniel 8:8, 22).

Alexander was twenty when he became king of Macedon. In 334 BC he crossed into Asia and won at the Granicus River; in 333 BC he defeated Darius III at Issus; and in 331 BC he crushed the Persian army at Gaugamela, near the ruins of Nineveh. Within four years the empire of Cyrus was his, from Egypt to the borders of India.

Two centuries earlier, Daniel had seen a ram with two horns trampled by a male goat that came from the west so fast it “didn't touch the ground” (Daniel 8:5). The angel Gabriel explained that the ram stood for “the kings of Media and Persia” and the goat for “the king of Greece” (Daniel 8:20–21).

Places

PersiaMediaGreece

Ancient witnesses outside the Bible

Historical sources, not Scripture.

Dating notes

Ussher: Alexander crossed into Asia in 334 BC, won at Gaugamela in 331 BC, and Darius III was killed in 330 BC. Ussher's dates agree with the conventional ones here.

Open on the timelineRead Daniel 8:5–7, 20–21