Daniel 7:5

1. In speaking of a "lioness from the sea," he meant the rising of the kingdom of Babylon, and that this was the "golden head of the image." And in speaking of its "eagle wings," be meant that king Nebuchadnezzar was exalted and that his glory was lifted up against God. Then he says "its wings were plucked off," i.e., that his glory was destroyed; for he was driven out of his kingdom. And the words, "A man's heart was given it, and it was made stand upon the feet of a man," mean that he came to himself again, and recognised that he was but a man, and gave the glory to God. Then after the lioness he sees a second beast, "like a bear," which signified the Persians. For after the Babylonians the Persians obtained the power. And in saying that "it had three ribs in its mouth," he pointed to the three nations, Persians, Medes, and Babylonians, which were expressed in the image by the silver after the gold. Then comes the third beast, "a leopard," which means the Greeks; for after the Persians, Alexander of Macedon had the power, when Darius was overthrown, which was also indicated by the brass in the image. And in saying that the beast "had four wings of a fowl, and four heads," he showed most clearly how the kingdom of Alexander was parted into four divisions. For in speaking of four heads, he meant the four kings that arose out of it. For Alexander, when dying, divided his kingdom into four parts. Then he says, "The fourth beast (was) dreadful and terrible: it had iron teeth, and claws of brass." Who, then, are meant by this but the Romans, whose kingdom, the kingdom that still stands, is expressed by the iron? "for," says he, "its legs are of iron." 2. After this, then, what remains, beloved, but the toes of the feet of the image, in which "part shall be of iron and part of clay mixed together? […]

While these things were then happening in this way to Nebuchadnezzar in those times, just as the blessed Daniel disclosed to us in the vision, the king himself likewise confessed it, and after he died, the office came to Belshazzar. When he himself, on account of the deed which he did at night, was taken away, as has been indicated in the book before this book, then Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being sixty two years old. So suitably the prophet describes another beast rising, which was the bear, so that in this he may display the kingdom of the Persians. He says, "Three ribs were in its mouth." [Daniel 7:5] He calls three ribs the three regions of nations, which the same beast ruled, which were Medes, Assyrians, and Babylonians. "And that they were speaking in this way to it, 'Rise, eat much flesh.'" [Daniel 7:5] For then in those times the Persians rose up and laid waste to all the land and made many of the men their slaves, and they utterly destroyed everything. For just as the beast, the bear is a sordid and flesh-eating creature, tearing with both its claws and teeth, in this way also the kingdom of the Persians became, which presided for two hundred and thirty years.

These are the symbols of the kingdom of Darius, king of the Medes. As in the statue of Nebuchadnezzar the Mede empire had been foreshadowed under the aspect of silver, which is a viler metal than gold, so in this dream it is indicated by …

Here he indicates the Persian kingdom, which he states to have been like a bear because of the cruelty and savageness of the punishments it meted out. For the Persians were the cruelest of all the barbarians when it came to punishing. They would rip …

The Persians ruled three parts of the world: the east, the north and the south. Cyrus … brought into submission all the east, as far as the Hellespont. His son subdued Egypt and made the Ethiopians subject to him. Darius … acquired the realm of …