| 600 BC | Persian kings (out of Elam?) | |
| 550 | Cyrus the Great ruled | |
| 559 | Cyrus took Media | |
| 547 | Cyrus took Anatolia | |
| 546 | Cyrus took Lydia | |
| 538 | Cyrus took Babylon | |
| Cyrus founded the Persian Empire, the first Achaemenid empire, extending from Indus Valley to the Mediterranean, Caucasus to the Indian ocean | ||
| 530 | Cambyses, son of Cyrus conquered Egypt 525 A-53 | |
| 521 | Darius I, a Zoroastrian, ruled, extending its borders beyond Indus Valley,
including Indian cities A canal was dug from the Nile to the Red Sea |
|
| 486 | Xerxes ruled, defeated by the Greeks on the sea at Salamis 480 and on land at Plataea 479, plans to take Greece were abandoned | |
| 465 | Artaxerxes ruled, attacked by Greece, signed treaty 446 | |
| The Empire of Persia began to decline | ||
| 424 | Xerxes II assassinated by his brother Sogdianus who was killed by brother Ochus oir Darius II | |
| 404 | Artaxerxes II defeated his brother Cyrus II at Cunaxa near Babylon 401 | |
| 400 | Cyrus II died in battle, Egypt became independent | |
| 331 | Darius III was killed when Alexander the Great conquered Persia | |
| See Alexander |