Persia's conquest and absorption of the Babylonian Empire.
Persia's takeover of the Lydian Empire.
From 550 BCE.
Persia's absorption of Media and then conquest of the Babylonian Empire.
Persia first brought its overlord Media under it's control and used the combined strength to take over the Babylonian and Lydian Empires.
From 550 BCE, reaching its peak over the next 50 years.
Roman Empire, Greek Empire, and Persian Empire
After Persia absorbed Media in 550 BCE, the combination progressively expanded through the Middle East and established an empire.
MesopotamiaSumeriansSargon the Great and the Akkadian EmpireAssyrian EmpireThe PhoeniciansThe ChaldeansThe Persian Empire: Cyrus the GreatThe ScythiansThe Persian Empire: DariusThe Persian WarEnd of the Persian Empire
It was begun by Persian King Cyrus the Great from 550 BCE, and taken over by the Macedonian King Alexander the Great from 331 BCE.
The breakaway of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor, the rise of Macedonia and its conquest of Persia.
Major events during the long period of the Middle Ages were the rise and fall of the Carolingian Empire, the formation of the Holy Roman Empire, the Hundred Years' War and the crusades.
The Aegean Sea separated it from mainland Greece, however there were over 100 Greek city-states within the Persian empire in Asia Minor and the Islands, and those cities were the bone of contention which gave rise to the Greek-Persian Wars.
The inability of the Persians, over the fifty years of war, to impose peace in the Eastern Mediterranean left the way open for the rise of Macedonia and its eventual conquest of the Persian Empire.