PAGE. BOOK SIXTEENTH, CONTINUED. THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER'S SUCCESSORS. CHAPTER II. THIS second chapter includes the space of fifty five years; namely, the last fifteen years of Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, who had already reigned twenty three, which, with the other fifteen, make thirty eight; and forty eight years more, being the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. SECTION I. THE FOUR VICTORIOUS PRINCES DIVIDE THE EMPIRE OF ALEXANDER THE CREAT INTO AS MANY KINGDOMS. AFTER the battle of Ipsus, the four confederate princes divided the dominions of Antigonus among themselves, and added them to those they already possessed. The empire of Alexander was thus divided into four kingdoms, of which Ptolemy had Egypt, Plut. in Demetr. p. 902. Appian. in Syr. p. 122, 123. Polyb. 1. xv. p. 572. Lybia, Arabia, Celosyria, and Palestine; Cassander had Macedonia and Greece; Lysimachus, Thrace, Bithynia, and some other provinces beyond the Hellespont, with the Bosphorus; and Seleucus, all the rest of Asia, to the other side of the Euphrates, and as far as the river Indus. The dominions of this last prince are usually called the kingdom of Syria, because Seleucus, who afterwards built Antioch in that province, made it the chief seat of his residence, in which he was followed by his successors, who from his name were called Selucidæ. This kingdom, however, not only included Syria, but those vast and fertile provinces of Upper Asia, which constituted the Persian empire. The reign of twenty years, which I have assigned to Seleucus Nicator, commences at this period, because he was not acknowledged as king, till after the battle of Ipsus; and if we add to these the twelve years, during which he exercised the regal authority without the title, they will make out the reign of thirty one years assigned him by Usher. b These four kings are the four horns of the he goat in the prophecy of Daniel, who succeeded in the place of the first horn that was broken. The first horn was Alexander, king of Greece, who destroyed the empire of the Medes and Persians, designed by the ram with two horns; and the other four horns, are those four kings who rose up after him, and divided his empire among them, but they were not of his posterity. They are likewise shadowed out by the four heads of the leopard, which are introduced in another part of the same prophecy. See Dan. chap. viii. 5, 6, 7, 8. & 20, 21, 22. See Dan. vii. 6. These prophecies of Daniel were exactly accomplished by this last partition of Alexander's empire; other divisions had, indeed, been made before this, but they were only of provinces, which were consigned to governors, under the brother and son of Alexander, and none but the last was the regal partition. Those prophecies, therefore, are to be understood of this alone, for they evidently represent these four successors of Alexander, in the quality of four kings, " four stood up for it." But not one of Alexander's successors obtained the regal dignity, till about three years before the last division of the empire. And even this dignity was at first precarious, as being assumed by each of the several parties, merely by his own authority, and not acknowledged by any of the rest. Whereas, after the battle of Ipsus, the treaty made between the four confederates, when they had defeated their adversary, and divested him of his dominions, assigned each of them their dominions under the appellation of so many kingdoms, and authorized, and acknowledged them as kings and sovereigns, independent of any superior power. These four kings are, Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus. We can never sufficiently admire, in this, and the other places, wherein the completion of the prophe. cies of Daniel will be observed, the strong light with which the prophet penetrates the thick gloom of futurity, at a time when there was not the least appearance of all he foretels. With how much certainty and exactness, even amidst the variety of these revolutions, and a chaos of singular events, does he determine each particular circumstance, and fix the number of the |