1st millennium BC

(2nd millennium BC – 1st millennium BC – 1st millennium – other millennia)

Events

• The Iron Age began in Western Europe
• Egypt declined as a major power
• The Tanakh was written
• Buddhism was founded
• Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and created the Persian Empire (6th century BC)
• Sparta and Athens fought the Peloponnesian War
• Alexander the Great conquered Greece, Egypt, Persia and Afghanistan
• Hellenic Greek culture spread through the Mediterranean
• China was unified under the Qin Dynasty
• Celts invaded Western Europe
• The Roman Republic rose and fell
• Rome and Carthage fought the Punic wars
• The Maya civilisation began

Significant persons

• David, Israelite king
• Homer, Greek poet
• Gautama Buddha, Hindu prince, founder of Buddhism
• Mahavira, founder of Jainism
• Lao Tze, Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism
• Confucius, Chinese philosopher
• Pericles, Athenian statesman
• Aeschylus, Greek tragedian
• Sophocles, Greek tragedian
• Euripides, Greek tragedian
• Socrates, Greek Philosopher
• Plato, Greek philosopher
• Aristotle, Greek Philosopher
• Pythagoras, Greek mathemetician
• Alexander the Great, Greek conqueror (4th century BC)
• Euclid, Alexandrian mathematician
• Archimedes, Greek scientist
• Cicero, Latin orator and philosopher
• Julius Caesar, Roman conqueror and dictator
• Virgil, Latin poet

Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions

• Iron use becomes widespread
• Buoyancy principle is discovered
• Geometry is developed
• Pythagorean theorem proved
• Eratosthenes proves that the earth is a sphere and estimates its diameter.
• The Phoenicians propagate the phonetic alphabet in the Mediterranian
• Many major religious and philosophical viewpoints are created, further explored or codified

Cultural landmarks

Centuries and Decades