540s BC

Last updated October 30, 2023

This article concerns the period 549 BC – 540 BC.

Events and trends

546 BC—Croesus, Lydian king, is defeated by Cyrus of Persia near the River Halys.
546 BC—Cyrus of Persia completes his conquest of Lydia, and makes Pasargadae his capital.^[1]
546 BC—Cyrus establishes a garrison in Sardis and incorporates the Greek cities of Ionia in Asia Minor into Persian Empire. Thus he gains the important ports that look out to the Mediterranean world.
546 BC—Pisistratus, supported by Thebes and Argos, finally takes power in Athens from the aristocratic party and imposes a moderate tyranny, respect, and even imposing against the oligarchy, the laws of Solon and leaving intact the magistracy (he "merely" to save his family). The same year Pisistratus cut taxes, grants of land and resources to the poor and caters for sick and old. It unifies the Attica, extending the influence of Athens, resuming Sigeion, who commanded the entrance of the Hellespont (Dardanelles), and acquires Taurica (Crimea).
546 BC—Sparta and Argos fight the Battle of the 300 Champions. Both sides had agreed beforehand to resolve their dispute with just 300 picked men on each side, in the end just one Spartan and two Argive soldiers remained alive. Both sides claimed victory.^[2]
546 BC—The architect Eupalinos of Megara built aqueducts that supply water to Athens.
546 BC—The peace conference between the kingdoms in China. A treaty between Jin, Chu and some other kingdoms was signed.
546 BC—A coup d'état in Qi kingdom.
544 BC—People of Teos migrate to Abdera, Thrace to escape the control of Persia.
544 BC—King Jing becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
543 BC—North Indian Prince Vijaya invades Ceylon and establishes a Sri Lankan dynasty.^[3]
543 BC—Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, purifies the island of Delos (approximate date).
543 BC—Guided by the Chinese statesman Zi Chan, the State of Zheng institutes a formal code of law.^[4]
540 BC—Cyrus attacks Babylonia.
540 BC—Greek city of Elea of southern Italy founded (approximate date).
540 BC—Persians conquer Lycian city of Xanthos now in southern Turkey (approximate date).
c. 540 BC—Amasis Painter makes Dionysos with maenads, black-figure decoration on an amphora. It is now at Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris.
c. 540 BC—Exekias makes The Suicide of Ajax , black-figure decoration on an amphora. It is now at Chateau-Musee, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France.

Significant people

549 BC—Birth of Darius I ^[5]
547 BC—Death of Croesus?
546 BC—Death of Anaximander, Greek philosopher (approximate date)^[6]
545 BC—Death of Zhou ling wang, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China
544 BC—Birth of Sun Tzu
543 BC—Death of Gautama Buddha (traditional in Thailand and elsewhere—basis of the Thai solar calendar)
543 BC—Death of Thales, Greek philosopher
540 BC—Amyntas I becomes king of Macedonia (approximate date)^[7]
Amasis Painter, Greek painter

Related Research Articles

Amasis II or Ahmose II was a pharaoh of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the successor of Apries at Sais. He was the last great ruler of Egypt before the Persian conquest.

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland Izmir. The ethnic group inhabiting this kingdom are known as the Lydians, and their language, known as Lydian, was a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The capital of Lydia was Sardis.

The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC.

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The 7th century BC began the first day of 700 BC and ended the last day of 601 BC.

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This article concerns the period 579 BC – 570 BC.

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This article concerns the period 389 BC – 380 BC.

Croesus was the king of Lydia, who reigned from 585 BC until his defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 547 or 546 BC. According to Herodotus, he reigned 14 years.

The year 540 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as year 214 Ab urbe condita. The denomination 540 BC for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Cyrus II of Persia, commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Hailing from Persis, he brought the Achaemenid dynasty to power by defeating the Median Empire and embracing all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanding vastly and eventually conquering most of West Asia and much of Central Asia to create the world's then-largest polity. The Achaemenid Empire's largest territorial extent was achieved under the rule of Cyrus' successor Darius the Great, whose rule stretched from the Balkans and the rest of Southeast Europe in the west to the Indus Valley in the east.

References

↑ Jarzombek, Mark M.; Prakash, Vikramaditya (4 October 2011). A Global History of Architecture. John Wiley & Sons. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-470-90248-6.
↑ Bury, John Bagnell; Charlesworth, Martin Percival; Adcock, Frank Ezra; Baynes, Norman Hepburn (1925). The Cambridge Ancient History ... The University Press. p. 569. ISBN 978-0-521-04493-6.
↑ Deme, Jacob (12 October 2019). A Boy From Serendib: A Novelized Memoir: Part 1 - Coming of Age. Jacob Deme. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-6934-6430-0.
↑ Zhu, Yi-ting (2021-06-02). A Panoramic History of Traditional Chinese Ethics. Springer Nature. p. 45. ISBN 978-981-16-1252-7.
↑ Tucker, Spencer C. (16 December 2014). 500 Great Military Leaders [2 volumes]: [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 185. ISBN 978-1-59884-758-1.
↑ Gregory, Andrew (25 February 2016). Anaximander: A Re-assessment. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4725-0625-2.
↑ Thomas, Carol G. (15 April 2018). Alexander the Great in His World. John Wiley & Sons. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4051-7828-0.

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[1] Jarzombek, Mark M.; Prakash, Vikramaditya (4 October 2011). A Global History of Architecture. John Wiley & Sons. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-470-90248-6.

[2] Bury, John Bagnell; Charlesworth, Martin Percival; Adcock, Frank Ezra; Baynes, Norman Hepburn (1925). The Cambridge Ancient History ... The University Press. p. 569. ISBN 978-0-521-04493-6.

[3] Deme, Jacob (12 October 2019). A Boy From Serendib: A Novelized Memoir: Part 1 - Coming of Age. Jacob Deme. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-6934-6430-0.

[4] Zhu, Yi-ting (2021-06-02). A Panoramic History of Traditional Chinese Ethics. Springer Nature. p. 45. ISBN 978-981-16-1252-7.

[5] Tucker, Spencer C. (16 December 2014). 500 Great Military Leaders [2 volumes]: [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 185. ISBN 978-1-59884-758-1.

[6] Gregory, Andrew (25 February 2016). Anaximander: A Re-assessment. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4725-0625-2.

[7] Thomas, Carol G. (15 April 2018). Alexander the Great in His World. John Wiley & Sons. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4051-7828-0.

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540s BC

Contents

Events and trends

Significant people

Related Research Articles

References