Daniel's four kingdoms and the Mediterranean (Jamieson; Fausset; & Brown, A commentary, 1880, OT - vol. 2)

Text: "Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. 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. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns." Daniel 7:2-7

Quote:

[...] 2. the four winds— [...] strove— [...] sea—the world-powers rise out of the agitations of the political sea (Jeremiah, 46. 7, 8; Luke, 21. 25; cf. Revelation, 13. 1; 17. 15; 21. 1;); the kingdom of God and the Son of Man from the clouds of heaven (v. 13; cf. John, 8. 23.). Tregelles takes "the great sea" to mean, as always elsewhere in Scripture (Joshua, 1. 4; 9. 1,), the Mediterranean, the centre territorially of the four kingdoms of the vision, which all border on it, and have Jerusalem subject to them. Babylon did not border on the Mediterranean, nor rule Jerusalem, till Nebuchadnezzar's time, when both things took place simultaneously. Persia encircled more of this sea, viz., from the Hellespont to Cyrene. Greece did not become a monarchy before Alexander's time, but then, succeeding to Persia, it became mistress of Jerusalem. It surrounded still more of the Mediterranean, adding the coasts of Greece to the part held by Persia. Rome, under Augustus, realised three things at once—it became a monarchy, became mistress of the last of the four parts of Alexander's empire (symbolised by the four heads of the third beast), and of Jerusalem, it surrounded all the Mediterranean. [...]

Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, Andrew Robert; Brown, David, A commentary: critical, practical and explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, with a Bible dictionary, compiled from Dr. Wm. Smith's standard work, a copious index, chronological tables, maps and illustrations, Chicago; New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1880, Old Testament - vol. 2 - Proverbs-Malachi, p. 619.

Online source: archive.org/details/commentarycritic18802jami

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