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LECTURE XLVII.

ALEXANDRIA, B.C. 333-150.

JEWISH AUTHORITIES:

Josephus, Ant. xi. 8-xii. 4. A.D. 70.

3 Maccabees.

Wisdom of the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus):

In Hebrew, B.C. 200.

In Greek, B.c. 132.

Wisdom of Solomon, Qu. B.c. 50 ?

Aristobulus, B.c.180, in Eusebius, Præp. Ev. vii. 13; viii. 9; ix. 6; xiii. 12.

HEATHEN AUTHORITIES:

Hecatæus of Abdera, B.C. 320 (Joseph. c. Apion, i. 22).
Agatharchides (ibid.)

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235

LECTURE XLVII.

ALEXANDRIA.

It was a striking remark1 of Hegel that Greece, the youthful Alexander. prime of the world, came in with the youth Achilles, and went out with the youth Alexander. But if Grecian history died with Alexander, Grecian influence was created by him. If Hellas ceased, Hellenism, the spirit of the Greek race throughout the Eastern world, now began its career. In the Prophets of the Captivity we felt the electric shock produced by the conquest of Cyrus. There is unfortunately no contemporary prophet in whom we can in like manner appreciate the approach of Alexander. Yet that was no inapt vision which, in the book of Daniel, pictured the marvellous sight of the mountain goat from the Ionian shores, bounding over the face of the earth so swiftly as not to touch the ground-with one beautiful horn, like the unicorn on the Persepolitan monuments, between his eyes--which ran in the fury of his power against the double-horned ram, the emblem3 of the kings of Media and Persia, and there was no power in

1 Philosophy of History, p. 233. 2 Dan. viii. 5.

3 I confine the illustrations from the Book of Daniel to those which are certain. The arrangement of the two visions of the four empires is so difficult to combine with any single hypothesis that it belongs to the commentator on the several passages rather than to a general historical survey. On the one hand the brass of Dan. ii. 39, agrees in order with the leopard of Dan. vii. 6, which agrees

On

with the Grecian monarchy, parti-
cularly in regard to the swiftness of
the animal and the four heads.'
the other hand, the last horn of the
fourth beast (Dan. vii. 8), must almost
certainly be identified with the last
horn of the he-goat (Dan. viii. 9) and
this (Dan. viii. 11), must be Antiochus
Epiphanes (Dan. xi. 36). For the
chronological enigma of Dan. xi. 24-
27; xii. 12, see Note at the end of
Lecture XLVIII.

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