Achaemenid Empire

Achaemenid Empire
𐎧𐏁𐏂
*Xšāça*
Achaemenid Empire 𐎧𐏁𐏂; Xšāça
550–330 BC
	Standard of Cyrus the Great
	The Achaemenid Empire at its greatest territorial extent, under the rule of Darius the Great (522–486 BC)
Capital	Babylon; Pasargadae; Ecbatana; Susa; Persepolis (ceremonial);
Common languages	Old Persian[a]; Aramaic[b]; Akkadian[c]; Elamite; Greek; Median; see § Languages;
Religion	Zoroastrianism (official) Mesopotamian religion; Judaism; Vedic Hinduism; Egyptian religion; Greek religion; see § Religion;
Government	Monarchy
Monarchs
• 559–530 BC	Cyrus the Great
• 530–522 BC	Cambyses II
• 522–522 BC	Gaumata
• 522–486 BC	Darius the Great
• 486–465 BC	Xerxes I
• 465–424 BC	Artaxerxes I
• 424–424 BC	Xerxes II
• 424–423 BC	Sogdianus
• 423–405 BC	Darius II
• 405–358 BC	Artaxerxes II
• 358–338 BC	Artaxerxes III
• 338–336 BC	Arses
• 336–330 BC	Darius III
Historical era	Classical antiquity
• Persian Revolt	550 BC
• Conquest of Lydia	547 BC
• Conquest of Babylon	539 BC
• Conquest of Indus Valley	535–518 BC
• Conquest of Egypt	525 BC
• European Scythian Campaign	513 BC
• Greco-Persian Wars	499–449 BC
• Babylonian Revolts	484 BC
• Corinthian War	395–387 BC
• Great Satraps' Revolt	372–362 BC
• Second conquest of Egypt	343 BC
• Fall to Macedonia	330 BC
Area
500 BC	5,500,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi)
Population
• 500 BC	17 million to 35 million
Currency	Daric, siglos
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Median Empire
	Elam
	Neo-Babylonian Empire
	Lydia
	Lycia
	Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt
	Cyrenaica
	Gandhāra
	Sogdia
	Massagetae
	Persis
Macedonian Empire
Twenty-eighth Dynasty of Egypt
	a. ^ Official language and native language of the ruling class.; b. ^ Official language and lingua franca.; c. ^ Literary language in Babylonia.;

The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the First Persian Empire (/əˈkiːmənɪd/; Old Persian: 𐎧𐏁𐏂, Xšāça, lit. 'The Empire' or 'The Kingdom'), was the ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the largest empire by that point in history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometres (2.1 million square miles). The empire spanned from the Balkans and Egypt in the west, West Asia as the base, the majority of Central Asia to the northeast, and parts of South Asia (the Indus Valley in what is present-day Pakistan) to the southeast.

Around the 7th century BC, the region of Persis in the southwestern portion of the Iranian plateau was settled by the Persians. From Persis, Cyrus rose and defeated the Median Empire as well as Lydia and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, marking the formal establishment of a new imperial polity under the Achaemenid dynasty.

In the modern era, the Achaemenid Empire has been recognized for its imposition of a successful model of centralized bureaucratic administration, its multicultural policy, building complex infrastructure such as road systems and an organized postal system, the use of official languages across its territories, and the development of civil services, including its possession of a large, professional army. Its advancements inspired the implementation of similar styles of governance by a variety of later empires.

By 330 BC, the Achaemenid Empire was conquered by Alexander the Great, an ardent admirer of Cyrus; the conquest marked a key achievement in the then-ongoing campaign of his Macedonian Empire. Alexander's death marks the beginning of the Hellenistic period, when most of the fallen Achaemenid Empire's territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and the Seleucid Empire, both of which had emerged as successors to the Macedonian Empire following the Partition of Triparadisus in 321 BC. Hellenistic rule remained in place for almost a century before the Iranian elites of the central plateau reclaimed power under the Parthian Empire.

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