SECOND SEAL

Revelation  6:4

4:

And there went out another horse that was red:  and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another:  and there was given unto him a great sword.

Cyrus the Great, united the Medes and Persians and then attacked Lydia, a kingdom in western Asia Minor.  The Lydians sought help from Babylonia and Egypt, but Cyrus defeated them in 546 B.C.  After organizing his conquests Cyrus marched on Babylon, which yielded to him without a struggle.

In 553 one of the minor Indo-European tribes of Iran, the Persians, successfully challenged the overlordship of the Medes, and Cyrus the Aachaemenian established a new ruling dynasty.

The Persians, a people akin to the Medes, exploded in a great burst of military activity (take peace from the earth) to create the greatest empire up to that time.  Led by such capable men as Cyrus  the Great and Darius, they united all the people of the Near East in an empire that extended from India to the Aegean, and from the Black Sea to Nubia, Greece alone finally checked the spread of this Oriental power.

Daniel 7:5

5:

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.