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Cyrus the Great

600 BCE – 530 BCE

Retrace Cyrus the Great's life across the map — 8 events in chronological order, from a cinematic flythrough to a full timeline.

Life journey

1. Medo-Persian conflict552 BCE
   The Medo-Persian conflict was a campaign led by the Median king Astyages against Persis in the mid 6th-century BCE. Classical sources claim that Persis had been a vassal of the Median kingdom that revolted against Median rule, but this is not confirmed by contemporary evidence. After some battles the Persians led by Cyrus the Great emerged victorious, subsequently conquering Median territories and establishing the Achaemenid Empire.
2. Battle of the Persian Border550 BCE
   The Battle of the Persian Border was the second encounter between the forces of Media and Persia. Though not a decisive victory for Persia, it signaled the diminishing power of Media in southwest Asia. It was the first battle Cambyses I had fought in, and the first which he had fought with his son, Cyrus the Great. The first major battle, which lasted two days, was an attempt to bring freedom to Persia. It also prompted the Persians to retire south and fight a third battle.
3. Siege of Sardis546 BCE
   The Siege of Sardis was the last decisive conflict after the Battle of Thymbra, which was fought between the forces of Croesus of Lydia and Cyrus the Great. In the battle, Croesus was defeated and was forced to retreat to his capital at Sardis. Cyrus promptly followed Croesus to his city, laid siege to it for 14 days and captured it along with Croesus.
4. Battle of Thymbra546 BCE
   The Battle of Thymbra was the decisive battle in the war between Croesus of the Lydian Kingdom and Cyrus II of the Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus, after he had pursued Croesus into Lydia after the drawn Battle of Pteria, met the remnants of Croesus' partially disbanded army in battle on the plain north of Sardis in December 547 BC. Croesus' army was about twice as large and had been reinforced with many new men, but Cyrus still utterly defeated it. That proved to be decisive, and after the 14-day Siege of Sardis, the city and possibly its king fell, and Lydia was conquered by the Persians.
5. Battle of Pteria546 BCE
   The Battle of Pteria was fought in 547 BC between the Persian forces of Cyrus the Great and the Lydian forces of Croesus. Both armies suffered heavy casualties in this indecisive battle.
6. Fall of Babylon538 BCE
   The fall of Babylon occurred in 539 BCE, when the Persian Empire conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The success of the Persian campaign, led by Cyrus the Great, brought an end to the reign of the last native dynasty of Mesopotamia and gave the Persians control over the rest of the Fertile Crescent.
7. Battle of Opis538 BCE
   The Battle of Opis was the last major military engagement between the Achaemenid Empire and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which took place in September 539 BC, during the Persian invasion of Mesopotamia. At the time, Babylonia was the last major power in Western Asia that was not yet under Persian control. The battle was fought in or near the strategic riverside city of Opis, located north of the capital city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq, and resulted in a decisive victory for Persia. Shortly afterwards, the Babylonian city of Sippar surrendered to Persian forces, who then supposedly entered Babylon without facing any further resistance. The Persian king Cyrus the Great was subsequently proclaimed as the king of Babylonia and its subject territories, thus ending its independence and incorporating the entirety of the fallen Neo-Babylonian Empire into the greater Achaemenid Empire.
8. Achaemenid conquest of the Indus Valley534 BCE
   Around 535 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus the Great initiated a protracted campaign to absorb parts of northwestern Indian subcontinent into his nascent Achaemenid Empire. In this initial incursion, the Persian army annexed a large region to the west of the Indus River, consolidating the early eastern borders of their new realm. With a brief pause after Cyrus' death around 530 BCE, the campaign continued under Darius the Great, who began to re-conquer former provinces and further expand the Achaemenid Empire's political boundaries. Around 518 BCE, the Persian army pushed further into India to initiate a second period of conquest by annexing regions up to the Jhelum River in what is today known as Punjab. At peak, the Persians managed to take control of most of modern-day Pakistan and incorporate it into their territory.

Event data from Wikipedia/Wikidata (CC-BY-SA). Spotted a mistake? Email [email protected].