Hippolytus of Rome : But the male goat who comes from the south, he says is Alexander the Macedonian king of the Greeks. — Commentary on Daniel 4.26.3 Jerome : Verse 5. "And I myself understood..." On the basis of the previous visions which had symbolized the second kingdom by the ram and the he-goat, Daniel now also understood that he was looking at the empire of the Medes and Persians. "And behold, there was a he-goat which was coming from the West above the surface of the whole earth, and yet without touching the ground..." So that no one will think that I am attaching a private interpretation to this, let us simply repeat the words of Gabriel as he explained the prophet's vision. He said, "The ram whom thou sawest to possess two horns is the king of the Medes and Persians." This was, of course, Darius the son of Arsames, in whose reign the kingdom of the Medes and Persians was destroyed. "There was in addition a he-goat, who was coming from the west," and because of his extraordinary speed he appeared not to touch the ground. This was Alexander, the king of the Greeks, who after the overthrow of Thebes took up arms against the Persians. Commencing the conflict at the Granicus River, he conquered the generals of Darius and finally smashed against the ram himself and broke in pieces his two horns, the Medes and the Persians. Casting him beneath his feet, he subjected both horns to his own authority. "And (he had) a large horn..." refers to the first king, Alexander himself. When he died in Babylon at the age of thirty-two, his four generals rose up in his place and divided his empire among themselves. For Ptolemy, the son of Lagos, seized Egypt; the Philip who was also called Aridaeus (var.: Arius), the (half-) brother of Alexander took over Macedonia; Seleucus Nicanor took over Syria, Babylonia, and all the kingdoms of the East; and Antigonus ruled over Asia Minor. "But (they shall not rise up) with his power" (chap. 8:22), since no one was able to equal the greatness of Alexander himself. "And a long time afterward" there shall arise "a king of Syria who shall be of shameless countenance and shall understand (evil) counsels," even Antiochus Epiphanes, the son of the Seleucus who was also called Philopator. — St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER EIGHT Theodoret of Cyrus : The dream's riddle here suggested the Macedonian Empire, calling it a "goat" because of its speed and fleetness of foot, a goat being faster than a ram. He said it came from the southwest: since it had previously subjugated Egypt, it thus advanced into the land of the Persians, conquering Darius in Cilicia, and from there traversing Syria, Phoenicia and Palestine, taking some of the cities by surrender, securing others by force. It then also gained possession of that empire, occupied the Persians and destroyed the greater part of their power. — COMMENTARY ON Daniel 8:5 Theodoret of Cyrus : By the "one horn visible," in the sense of famous and illustrious, he refers to Alexander; he says the horn was growing between its eyes on account of the shrewdness, intelligence and sagacity of Alexander's thinking. — COMMENTARY ON Daniel 8:5