Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.
Ver. 8. Therefore the he-goat waxed very great.] The Greeks became lords of all; their emperor was Et re et nomine magnus, not called great for nought; he began to take upon him as a god, and would be counted son to Jupiter Hammon; he called for divine honours, and slew Callisthenes, his tutor, because he would not yield thereto. This intolerable pride was a sure forerunner of his fall; his heart swelled so fast that the case could no longer hold it, but cracked. The world was a cage or little ease to him, therefore is he soon turned out of it, and of heaven's darling made the disdain of all. a
And when he was strong, the great horn was broken.] Surfeiting and drunkenness cast him into a fever, whereof he died in the flower of his youth and height of his enjoyments - such is the instability of earthly monarchs' worldly glory:
“ Magna repente raunt, summa cadunt subito. ”
Being not unlike those flores horae, flowers of the hour, very pleasant for the time, but dead and withdrawn in a trice. The vanities of this life, saith one, b at our most need, and when we least think, quite forsake us, leaving even them that most sought after them, and most abounded in them, shrouded often times in the sheet of dishonour and shame. Great Alexander lay unburied thirty days together; his conquests above ground purchased him no title for habitation under ground. The like befell Pompey the Great, our William the Conqueror, and others of the like reputation.
And for it came up four notable horns,] i.e., Four potent princes, out of the shipwreck of his empire; which four, in process of time, came to two. Dan 11:5-6
a Alexander orbi magnus, Alexandro orbis angustus est. - Seneca, Athenaeus.
b Turkish History, 331.