Chapter 9: From Persia to Greece
Study activity, printable worksheet, explained answers, and source references for your chapter.
Printed chapter: pages 53-58. Complete connected chart: pages 98–145. These page references match the reviewed manuscript.
Listen to Chapter 9 · View Chapter 9 on the chart · Download the two-page worksheet
Compare the successor kingdoms
Use Daniel 8:20-22 and the Egypt and Seleucid bands. Identify Alexander, then Ptolemy and Seleucus. Keep Judea’s high-priestly offices on a separate line. Ask older learners to label one date as accession, conquest, death, or rededication, and identify the source of that label.
Find the detail on the chart, identify what each number measures, and record the source used for your explanation.
Practice questions and explained answers
Try the worksheet first. Tap a question to reveal its explanation.
1. Which Alexander is discussed here?
Alexander III of Macedon, commonly called Alexander the Great. Identify the ruler before using his dates.
2. Why are 336, 334, 331, 330, and 323 BC not interchangeable?
They concern accession, the Asian campaign, Gaugamela, the Persian monarchy’s collapse, and death. A timeline needs an event attached to each year.
3. What does Daniel 8 itself identify?
The ram’s horns with Media and Persia, and the goat with Greece; its great horn is the first king. Adams adds personal and regional labels to his visual interpretation.
4. Does “four kingdoms” provide permanent modern borders?
No. The text’s symbolic sequence and the changing successor states must not be converted into one unchanging modern map.
5. Why distinguish Ptolemy’s control from his royal title?
His control in Egypt after Alexander’s death and his later adoption of kingship are different political milestones.
6. What does H.P. mean on the Judean route?
High priest. A local religious office does not by itself establish independent sovereignty over an empire.
Complete connected chart
Download all four parts and print in order, at actual size (100%). These contain one complete set of 48 numbered chart tiles, divided into four downloads. Follow the tile labels to connect the chart. Use the chapter enlargements for small lettering.
- Chart part 1 of 4 — tiles 1–12
- Chart part 2 of 4 — tiles 13–24
- Chart part 3 of 4 — tiles 25–36
- Chart part 4 of 4 — tiles 37–48
Sources to consult
These are the chapter’s source references, not quotations from those works. Use the named title, institution, record number, or passage to locate the source. Some external sources may have access restrictions.
- Ashmolean Museum, Heberden Coin Room, HCR23937: Alexander III of Macedon, ruler/authority dated 336-323 BCE. Arrian, Anabasis 1.1: Philip’s death and Alexander’s accession. Colette and Séan Hemingway, “Art of the Hellenistic Age and the Hellenistic Tradition,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007: conquests, 323 death, successor kingdoms, and Greek cultural exchange.
- Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, translated E. J. Chinnock (1884), Books 1-3, especially 1.11-16; 2.10-11, 15-27; 3.1-2, 8-22. Public-domain translation at Project Gutenberg, ebook 46976.
- Daniel 8:3-8, 20-22; 7:6.
- John F. Lazenby, “Ipsus,” Oxford Classical Dictionary, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3326: Antigonus’ defeat and death in 301 BCE. A. B. Bosworth, “Lysimachus,” doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.3834: Thrace, Asia Minor, and changing power.
- Marsha Hill, “Egypt in the Ptolemaic Period,” Met, 2016: Egyptian-Greek interactions and Ptolemaic royal-dynasty dating from 305 BC. Getty, Greek Gold from Hellenistic Egypt, simplified dynastic chart, p. 70: Ptolemy I’s royal reign from 305/304. Ancient Egypt in the Museums of Mallawi and Hildesheim, museum catalogue, Ptolemy I portrait discussion: Soter as “savior.”
- Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, “The Seleucid Empire (323-64 B.C.),” Met, 2004: Seleucus, wider territorial extent, Antioch and Seleucia, and the overview’s chronological endpoint. The heading date 323 is not treated as the date of every later royal title. French Ministry of Culture, archaeology glossary, “Hellenistic/Seleucid (period)”: Seleucid era reckoned from 312/311 and its distinction from later royal titulature.
- Carol Bakhos, “Judea under Ptolemaic and Seleucid Rule,” Posen Library: competing kingdoms and transfer around the Fifth Syrian War; the guide explicitly notes uncertainty between dates around 200 and 198 BCE. “Hefzibah Inscription,” Posen Library, description of the 190s BCE correspondence dossier: Antiochus III, Ptolemaios son of Thraseas, quartering soldiers, and protection of villagers. The full translation is access-restricted; only the publicly available description is used.
- Sylvie Honigman, “Aristeas, Letter of,” Oxford Classical Dictionary, updated 2021, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.741: the later literary account, Ptolemy II, elders, and legendary origins of the Septuagint.
- 1 Maccabees 1; 4:36-59, NRSVCE, especially 4:52 and its 164 BC conversion note.
- John 10:22-23, KJV.
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