The Mighty Ram - The Medo Persian Empire.
‘Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river one ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher that the other, and the higher came up last.'
‘I lifted up my eyes.' We might paraphrase as ‘my eyes were opened'. The fact that he was by this Medo-Persian river partly explains why he had Medo-Persia in mind and saw this vision.
‘One ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher that the other, and the higher came up last.' He emphasises that there was one ram but that it had two horns, of which one was higher than the other, and had come up last. This is a clear description of the Medo-Persian empire (Daniel 8:20). Cyrus was the larger horn, being over the whole, but beneath him and allied to him was the kingship of the Medes, which had previously been the most powerful. His general who captured Babylon was a Mede.
We are told that the guardian spirit of the Persian kingdom was said to appear under the form of a ram with clean feet and sharp-pointed horns, and that often, when the king stood at the head of his army, he carried the head of a ram. Ezekiel used the picture of the ram, and the he-goat, to denote a form of leadership (Ezekiel 34:17; Ezekiel 39:18). Although not wild beasts they were still seen as pretty fearsome.