Daniel 11:23

After the league. Some commentators have suggested that here Daniel goes back in point of time to the league of assistance and friendship arranged between the Jews and the Romans in 161 B.C. (see Josephus Antiquities xii. 10. 6). This view assumes that the Hebrew expression translated “time” in verse 24 designates a prophetic “time” of 360 years (see on chapters 7:25; 11:24). Others, who hold to the chronological continuity of the prophetic narrative of Daniel 11, find a reference here to the Roman policy of arranging what today would be called mutual assistance pacts, as, for example, the league of assistance and friendship with the Jews. In these treaties the Romans recognized the participants as “allies,” and the treaties were intended, presumably, to protect and promote mutual interests. Rome thus appeared in the role of friend and protector, only to “work deceitfully” by turning these agreements to her own advantage. She often imposed the burdens of conquest on her “allies,” but usually reserved the rewards of conquest for herself. Eventually these “allies” were absorbed into the Roman Empire.