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Virtue & Power

Timeline

Achaemenid Persia Timeline

A chronology of the first world-empire — from Cyrus the Great's founding through Darius's organization and the Greek wars to the conquest by Alexander.

The Achaemenid Empire was the first great multi-ethnic world-empire, founded by Cyrus and organized by Darius, governing a continent for two centuries until Alexander.

  1. 559 BCE

    Cyrus the Great becomes king of Persia.

  2. 550 BCE

    Cyrus overthrows the Median empire.

  3. 539 BCE

    Cyrus takes Babylon; the Cyrus Cylinder.

  4. 530 BCE

    Death of Cyrus; accession of Cambyses.

  5. 525 BCE

    Cambyses conquers Egypt.

  6. 522–486 BCE

    Reign of Darius I; the satrapal system, the royal roads, the daric coinage; the Behistun Inscription.

  7. 499–494 BCE

    The Ionian Revolt.

  8. 490 BCE

    Darius's invasion of Greece halted at Marathon.

  9. 480–479 BCE

    Xerxes's invasion; Thermopylae and Salamis (480), Plataea (479).

  10. 401 BCE

    Cyrus the Younger's revolt; the march of Xenophon's Ten Thousand.

  11. 5th–4th c. BCE

    Persia plays the Greek states against one another with gold and diplomacy.

  12. 334–330 BCE

    Alexander conquers the empire — Granicus, Issus, Gaugamela.

  13. 330 BCE

    Death of Darius III; end of the Achaemenid Empire.

The Achaemenid model of tolerant, accommodating rule over many peoples was the first durable solution to the problem of empire, inherited by Alexander and elaborated for a thousand years.