6th century BC

600 BC – 501 BC · 14 events

What happened around the world

594 BC Reforms of Solon — Debt slavery abolished — a step toward Athenian democracy
c. 530 BC Pythagoras founds his school at Croton — Numbers as the essence of the cosmos — Greek math begins
c. 509 BC Founding of the Roman Republic — By tradition, the kings are expelled and two consuls rule
508 BC Cleisthenes' reforms and the birth of democracy — Supreme power passes to the Athenian citizens' assembly

587 BC Destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar — The kingdom of Judah falls and the Babylonian exile begins
585 BC Battle of the Eclipse — The sun goes dark and Lydians and Medes make peace
550 BC Cyrus the Great founds the Achaemenid Empire — Persia defeats Media and builds the era's largest empire
c. 550 BC Gold and silver coins of Croesus — Pure gold and silver replace electrum — the first coin standard
539 BC Fall of Babylon to Cyrus — The Neo-Babylonian kingdom ends and exiles return home

c. 500 BC Voyage of Hanno the Navigator — A Carthaginian fleet sails past Gibraltar down Africa's coast

c. 563 BC Birth of the Buddha — By tradition, the founder of Buddhism comes into the world
551 BC Birth of Confucius — A teaching of virtue shapes China for two millennia

c. 500 BC Founding of Monte Albán — The Zapotecs build a mountaintop capital that lasts 1,000 years

c. 500 BC Ancestral Polynesian homeland in Samoa and Tonga — Lapita heirs become Polynesians, future settlers of Hawaii

China: dynasties: Zhou 1046 BC – 256 BC
Rome and Byzantium: Roman Kingdom 753 BC – 509 BC, Roman Republic 509 BC – 27 BC