This vision was received in the third year of Belshazzar's reign. When we read of people receiving dreams, visions and prophecies in the Bible we need to realise that they did not come continuously. They did happen but were relatively rare events. Susa was the capital of Elam, and was a fortified city. The Ulai Canal was a major waterway.
The ram represents the Medo-Persian empire. As we saw earlier, the empire was not two equal partners, and the longer horn represents Persia being the dominant partner. The ram charged here and there and no one could withstand it. This represents the dominant role of the empire and its conquering power.
However, no human kingdom lasts forever, no matter how powerful it seems. So the ram was utterly defeated by a goat. The goat represents Alexander the Great and it was the Greek empire that crushed the Medo-Persian one.
When Alexander the Great died he was replaced by four rulers. When a dominant figure dies there is usually a power vacuum of some sort, resentments that had been contained are released and things are never quite the same.
Out of one of the four came a powerful ruler. He started off as insignificant but grew mighty. Historically this may be Antiochus IV Epiphanes (or so my study Bible tells me). The key thing is that he waged war against God's people. Understanding the details of all these visions is difficult, but a key theme, and one repeated in Revelation, is that powerful kingdoms will rise that for a time will wage war against God's people.
There may also be references to AD66-70 as well.
The use of the term 2300 mornings and evenings represents the number of sacrifices that would be missed, so is 1150 days, or about three and a half years.
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