521 BC

521 BC - PERSIAN EXPANSION

## MAIN EVENTS

### 539 BC - Cyrus conquers Babylonia

In 539 BC, Cyrus II the Great of Persia and his armies defeated Nabonidus, and added Babylonia to the Persian Empire. This was the second major fall of Babylon, the first being that of 1499 BC to Mursili II of Hatti.

Cyrus in 538 BC allowed the Jews who had been deported to Babylon to return to Jerusalem and Judah, although a good many remained around Babylon as well. A century earlier, the Persians had been a constituent of the barbarian 'Umman-Manda' tribes who had swept into the region, sparing Jerusalem while sacking the pagan temple at Askelon. Now, as the custodians of the 'civilized' world, they continued their good favor towards Judaism, for the most part.

The first revolt of the satrap of Armina, Tigranes, is said to have been suppressed bloodlessly by the magnanimous Cyrus when he surprised and captured Tigranes' entire family, releasing them in exchange for continued vassalage to Persia, according to Xenophon.

### 539 BC - Nastosenen in Meroe

Ethiopian historians state that in 539 BC, Harsiotef was overthrown by Nastosenen (Nastasen), formerly governor of Meroe, who moved the capital of Ethiopia-Kush from Napata to Meroe.

### 535 BC - Battle of Alalia

From 540 to 535 BC there was a war between Carthage and the Etruscans on one side, and the Phocaeans and assorted Greek colonists in the region on the other. The Phocaean fleet defeated the Carthaginian-Etruscan one in a naval battle near Alalia, Corsica, but still ultimately had to abandon Corsica to the Etruscans, and Sardinia to the Carthaginians.

### 531 BC - Lao Tzu writes Dao De Ching

531 BC, toward the end of Mahavira's ministry in India, is when the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu published his work *Dao De Ching*, 'Treatise on the Path of Morality'. This book is at the core of the Daoist religion that he founded in this time, and he stressed the importance of the "3 treasures" - mercy, frugality and humility - echoing the earlier (c. 715 BC) Book of Micah 6:8, requiring justice, mercy and humility of the Israelites.

### 530 BC - Thomyris defeats Cyrus

In 530 BC, when the Persians tried to expand past the Jaxartes river they were defeated by the Massagetae of Queen Thomyris. Cyrus the Great himself was killed, and Thomyris captured the Persian king's treasury, probably including Lydian and Greek coins, and took it to the other end of her domain, to the Getae at the mouth of the Danube river.

Cyrus was then succeeded by his son Cambyses II in Persia. Thomyris apparently continued as queen of the Getae and Massagetae, alongside her spouse, Brenner II king of Swabia, until 509 BC.

### 530 BC - Carthage annexes Tartessos

Hasdrubal I succeeded Mago I in Carthage in 530 BC, and the Carthaginians invaded and subjected Tartessos as a vassal state, though it may not have been fully conquered until the Carthaginian general Maherbal defeated the Turdetanian king Baucius Capetus or Baucinus Capis in 516 BC.

### 528-483 BC - Ministry of Siddharta Gautama (Buddha) in India

As the new creeds of Jainism and Taoism were just beginning to spread, another offshoot of Hinduism was being preached in India during these years by another Indian prince, Siddharta Gautama, who took the title of Buddha. Buddhism claims that king Bimbisara of the Indian state of Maghada became Buddhist; however, Jainism claims that this same king of Maghada became a Jain instead. The Jain teacher Mahavira's foremost disciple is also said to be called Gautama, but he does not seem to be considered the same figure as Buddha, whom the Jains also acknowledge as a contemporary of Mahavira.

It has been argued that the original form of Buddhism he taught had rejected the veneration of graven images in favor of more spiritual teachings. It was the Greco-Buddhists, Greeks left behind by Alexander the Great in Bactria who became Buddhist over 200 years later, who evidently introduced the Hellenic veneration of graven images throughout Buddhism, and it is only from around their time that any written record of the Buddha's doctrines can be found, suggesting they may have been developed further in the intervening centuries.

Buddha is said to have been treated by Jivaka, the physician of Bimbisara, who had been at the University of Taxila in the Indus Valley, the first, and only verified school of higher learning outside of China so far. (Aside from mention of one for Druids at Toulouse from ca. 2200 BC, the earliest in China being from ca. 2350 BC.) Another disciple of Buddha who had studied at Taxila was Pasenadi (Prasenajit), king of Kosala.

### 525 BC - Cambyses conquers Egypt

In Egypt, Psamtik III (Psammecherites) succeeded his father Ahmose II in 526 BC. In 525 BC, Cambyses of Persia, first capturing Cyprus from the Egyptians, routed Psamtik at the battle of Pelusium and went on to capture him at Memphis. Later that year, Cambyses planned an invasion of Meroe / Ethiopia. His spies were found out by the Meroite king Nastosenen, who returned them to Cambyses with a bow so strong that none could pull it, save Cambyses' brother Bardiya, eliciting the Persian king's jealousy and rage. Cambyses immediately set forth with his troops for Meroe, but they had to turn back in the desert for want of sufficient provisions.

A hieroglyphic stele of Nastosenen or Nastasen mentions this failed invasion by 'Kambusuten', i.e. Cambyses, in accordance with the Ethiopian account. However, it was professor Hinze who in 1951 vigorously asserted that this stele of Nastasen referred rather to a different campaign led by a certain Khabbash in 338 BC, and it was on the basis of this identification that the entire sequence of Meroitic kings was confounded.

Later in 525 BC Nastosenen was succeeded in Meroe by king Handiw Abra or Hidasp, who possibly corresponds with the Meroite king known to archaeology as Siaspiqa.

### 522 BC - Usurpation of Sphendadates Gaumata (Bardiya) in Persia

Cambyses, a despotic king, sent his brother Bardiya from Egypt back to Susa, and later had him secretly killed, out of envy that he alone had pulled the bow of king Nastosenen. According to multiple sources, a Magi, or priest of the Zoroastrian religion, named Sphendadates or Gaumata, then arose pretending to be Bardiya, who was also satrap of the eastern satrapies bordering India. Cambyses set out from Egypt to deal with the impostor, but died after accidentally wounding himself en route. Gaumata managed to rule the Persian Empire for some months taking the name of Bardiya, before he was found out and overthrown in a coup that placed Darius I, son of Vitashpa of Bactria and a descendant of Teispes and Achaemenes, on the throne.

Most sources say the pretender Gaumata was killed; but the similarity in time, place, and names, between Sphendadates Gaumata the Magi who took the name Bardiya in Persia, and prince Siddharta Gautama who took the name Buddha in neighboring India, is intriguing. It would paint a drastically different picture if more evidence were to come to light that the founder of Buddhism had actually claimed the throne of Persia at the beginning of his career.

As Darius took the throne, he was faced with a rebellion led by Petubastis II in parts of Egypt, and in 521 BC the satrapy of Armina under king Vahagn also rebelled again, as did Hyrcania and Parthia, in support of Fravartish, another Mede pretender; meanwhile a certain Vahazyata was also briefly claiming to be Bardiya in the east of Persia. All the rebellions in Asia were crushed by Darius later in the summer of 521 BC; that of Petubastis the following year.