Achaemenid conquest of the Indus ValleyBelligerentsAchaemenid EmpireGandharaSindhu-SauvīraKambojasCommanders and leadersCyrus the GreatDarius the GreatPushkarasarinStrength Unknown UnknownCasualties and losses Unknown UnknownAround 535 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus the Great initiated a protracted campaign to absorb parts of northwestern Indian subcontinent into his nascent Achaemenid Empire.
Achaemenid EmpireThe Achaemenid Empire (, ; Old Persian: , Xšāça, lit. 'The Empire' or 'The Kingdom') was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. At peak, its territorial extent was roughly 5.5 million square kilometres (2.1 million square miles), making it the largest empire of its time.
PersepolisCeremonial capital of the Achaemenid EmpirePersepolis or Parseh (Persian: پارسه, romanized: Pārseh; Old Persian: 𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿, romanized: Pārsa), also known in modern Persian as Takht-e Jamshid (تخت جمشید, "Throne of Jamshid"), was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330 BC). It is situated in the plains of Marvdasht, encircled by the southern Zagros Mountains, in Fars province of Iran.
Indus RiverThe Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia.
Indian campaign of Alexander the GreatThe Indian campaign of Alexander the Great began in 327 BC and lasted until 325 BC. After conquering the Achaemenid Persian Empire, the Macedonian army undertook an expedition into the Indus Valley in northwestern South Asia. Within two years, Alexander the Great expanded the Macedonian Empire, a Hellenistic kingdom, to include Gandhara and the Indus Valley (present-day Punjab and Sindh), surpassing the earlier frontiers established by the Persian Achaemenid conquest.
Old Persian cuneiformSemi-alphabetic cuneiform script Old Persian cuneiformOld Persian cuneiform syllabary (left), and the DNa inscription (part II, right) of Darius the Great (circa 490 BC), in the newly created scriptScript type Semisyllabary Period525 BC – 330 BCDirectionLeft-to-right LanguagesOld PersianISO 15924ISO 15924Xpeo (030), Old PersianUnicodeUnicode aliasOld PersianUnicode rangeU+103A0–U+103D5 Download "Behistun", a free Old Persian Cuneiform Unicode font, install and refresh the page.
Achaemenid dynastyAncient Persian royal dynasty Achaemenes dynasty𐏃𐎧𐎠𐎶𐎴𐎡𐏁𐎡𐎹Royal standardPlace of originPersisFounded705 BCFounderAchaemenes (traditional)Final rulerDarius IIITitlesShah of PersiaKing of KingsXšāyaθiya XšāyaθiyānāmGreat KingKing of MediaKing of AnshanKing of BabylonKing of Sumer and AkkadKing of the Four CornersKing of the UniversePharaoh of EgyptEstateAchaemenid EmpireDissolution330 BCCadet branchesPharnacid dynastyAriarathid dynasty Periods and dynasties of Babylon All years are BC Old Babylonian Amorite dynasty I c. 1894–1595 First Sealand dynasty II c. 1732–1475 Kassite Kassite dynasty III c. 1594–1155 Middle Babylonian Second Dynasty of Isin IV c. 1157–1026 Second Sealand dynasty V c. 1025–1005 Bazi dynasty VI c. 1004–985 Elamite dynasty VII c. 984–979 Dynasty of E VIII c. 978–732 Neo-Assyrian Assyrian dynasty(combined rule of the Adasidedynasty and the Sargoniddynasty) IX 732–626 Neo-Babylonian Chaldean dynasty X 626–539 Persian Achaemenid dynasty XI 539–331 Hellenistic Argead dynasty XII 331–309 Seleucid dynasty XIII 311–141 Parthian Arsacid dynasty XIV 141 BC–AD 224 See also: List of kings by Period and Dynastyvte The Achaemenid dynasty (Old Persian: 𐏃𐎧𐎠𐎶𐎴𐎡𐏁𐎡𐎹 Haxāmanišyaʰ; Persian: هخامنشی Haxâmaneši; Ancient Greek: Ἀχαιμενίδαι Achaimenidai; Latin: Achaemenides) was a royal house that ruled the Achaemenid Empire, which eventually stretched from Egypt and the Balkans in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east.
GandāraGandāra, or Gadāra in Achaemenid inscriptions (Old Persian cuneiform: 𐎥𐎭𐎠𐎼, Gadāra, also transliterated as Gaⁿdāra since the nasal "n" before consonants was omitted in the Old Persian script, and simplified as Gandāra or sometimes Gandara) was one of the easternmost provinces of the Achaemenid Empire in South Asia, following the Achaemenid invasion of the Indus Valley.
HerodotusHerodotus (Ancient Greek: Ἡρόδοτος, romanised: Hēródotos; c. 484 – c. 425 BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Türkiye), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the Histories, a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars, among other subjects such as the rise of the Achaemenid dynasty of Cyrus.
SanskritAncient Indo-Aryan language of South AsiaSanskrit (; stem form संस्कृत; nominal singular संस्कृतम्, saṃskṛtam,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late Bronze Age.
Macedonia (ancient kingdom)Macedonia ( ; Greek: Μακεδονία, Makedonía), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancientkingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, which was followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties.Old PersianOld Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as ariya (Iranian). Old Persian is close to Avestan and both languages are highly inflected. Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets and seals of the Achaemenid era (c. 600 BCE to 300 BCE).𐏃𐎡𐎯𐎢𐏁Related word or term.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.