And now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia; and the fourth shall be far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia. Daniel 11: 2 At the time Daniel was given this prophecy, the current Persian ruler was Cyrus the Great, the Empires founder who cemented Persian control over the realm with the subjugation of his Median allies. This was the meaning of the bear standing on one side in Daniel 7. Daniel is told that there shall be three kings of Persia after Cyrus and the fourth, richest of all would stir the realm against the Greeks. The three rulers who followed Cyrus were his son Cambyses, who was then assassinated and succeeded by a usurper called the False Smerdis, who was then taken down by Darius Hystaspis. Darius Hystaspis became the Persian ruler Darius the Great and he expanded the empire onto the west coast of the Anatolian peninsula, modern Turkey and conquered the Greek city states there. He also campaigned against the Scythians. Dariuss son, the fourth Persian King after Cyrus was Xerxes the Great. Xerxes is most remembered for his invasion of Greece in 480 BC in the Persian Wars. They started with the Ionian revolt of 499 BC that saw the involvement of the Greek cities Athens and Eritrea. The capitol, Sardis was burned and Darius attempted to retaliate but was defeated at Marathon in 490 BC. Xerxes was determined to punish the Greek city states for aiding rebels against the Persian Empire and amassed a mighty army and navy from forty Persian controlled nations and invaded Greece. He overran and defeated the navy of Themistocles and the armies of Leonidas of Sparta at Thermopylae before burning Athens only to be defeated later at Salamis and Plataea. He was also known by the name Ahasuerus, which is the name he is remembered by from the Book of Esther, the events of which took place at this same time.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 03:25:11 +0000
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