Cyrus the Great
c. 600 BC – 530 BC · 70 years · Pasargadae · Middle East
Conquered Media, Lydia and Babylon to build the largest empire yet seen, and allowed the exiled Jews to return home.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 6th century BC
Portrait: Charles Francis Horne Clarence Cook · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Pythagoras — Greek philosopher and mathematician, 30 years younger
- Solon — Athenian lawgiver and poet, 30 years older
- Sappho — ancient Greek lyric poet, 30 years older
- Leonidas I — king of Sparta, 60 years younger
Middle East
- Thales of Miletus — philosopher and mathematician, 24 years older
- Nebuchadnezzar II — king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, 42 years older
- Darius the Great — King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, 50 years younger
Asia
- Gautama Buddha — founder of Buddhism, 37 years younger
- Confucius — Chinese philosopher, 49 years younger
- Mahavira — spiritual teacher of Jainism, 1 year younger
- Sun Tzu — Chinese military strategist, 56 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 587 BC Destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar — aged 13, Middle East
- c. 563 BC Birth of the Buddha — aged 37, Asia
- 551 BC Birth of Confucius — aged 49, Asia
- 550 BC Cyrus the Great founds the Achaemenid Empire — aged 50, Middle East
- 539 BC Fall of Babylon to Cyrus — aged 61, Middle East