After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard - smaller than the lion; swift (Habakkuk 1:8), cruel (Isaiah 11:6), the opposite of tame, springing suddenly from its hiding place on its prey (Hosea 13:7), spotted. So Alexander, a small king of a small kingdom, Macedon, attacked Darius at the head of the vast empire reaching from the AEgean Sea to the Indies. In twelve years he subjugated part of Europe, and all Asia from Illyricum and the Adriatic to the Ganges, not so much fighting as conquering (Jerome). Hence, whereas Babylon is represented with two wings, Macedon has four, so rapid were its conquests. The various spots denote the various nations incorporated into his empire (Bochart): or, Alexander's own variations in character, at one time mild, at another cruel; now temperate, and now drunken and licentious.
Four heads - explained Daniel 8:8; Daniel 8:22, "the he-goat ... when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven ... Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation" - namely, the four kingdoms of the Diadochi, or successors, into which the Macedonian empire was divided at the death of Alexander-namely, Macedon and Greece under Cassander, Thrace and Bithynia under Lysimachus, Egypt under Ptolemy, and Syria under Seleucus.
And dominion was given to it - by God; not by Alexander's own might. For how unlikely it was that 30,000 men should overthrow several hundreds of thousands. Josephus ('Antiquities,' 11: 6) says that Alexander adored the high priest of Jerusalem, saying that he, at Dium in Macedonia, had seen a vision of God so habited, inviting him to go to Asia, and promising him success.