Alexander's empire splits into four kingdoms
After twenty years of war among Alexander's generals, the battle of Ipsus left four kingdoms: Cassander in Macedonia, Lysimachus in Thrace and Asia Minor, Seleucus in Syria and the east, and Ptolemy in Egypt.
When he stands up, his kingdom will be broken and will be divided toward the four winds of the sky, but not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled; for his kingdom will be plucked up, even for others besides these.
Daniel 11:4 (World English Bible)
At Ipsus in Phrygia the allied generals defeated and killed Antigonus, the strongest of Alexander's successors, and divided the empire among themselves. Daniel had described exactly this: the great horn broken, and in its place “four notable horns toward the four winds of the sky” (Daniel 8:8).
Two of the four mattered most for the Jews. The Ptolemies ruled from Alexandria in Egypt and the Seleucids from Antioch in Syria. Daniel 11 follows their long rivalry as the wars of “the king of the south” and “the king of the north,” with little Judea caught between them (Daniel 11:5–35).
Places
Ancient witnesses outside the Bible
Historical sources, not Scripture.
Dating notes
Ussher: early in 301 BC, which agrees with the conventional date. Some interpreters count the four horns from an earlier settlement among the generals in 311 BC. After Ipsus, southern Syria (including Judea) was promised to Seleucus but held by Ptolemy, a dispute that led to a century of wars between the two houses.