6th century BC

(7th century BC – 6th century BC – 5th century BC – other centuries)

(600s BC – 590s BC – 580s BC – 570s BC – 560s BC – 550s BC – 540s BC – 530s BC – 520s BC – 510s BC – 500s BC – other decades)

(2nd millennium BC – 1st millennium BC – 1st millennium AD)

Events

• Cyrus the Great conquered many countries and created the Persian Empire.
  • Persians conquer Ancient Egypt, dominate eastern Mediterranean.
  • Ruin of the Kingdom of Judah and the destruction of the First Temple (586 BC), return of the Jews several decades later (538 BC).
  • Fall of the Babylonian Empire (539 BC), destroyed by Cyrus the Great.
  • The Persians under Darius I and later Cyrus invade Transoxiana.
• Carthage's merchant empire slowly dominates the western Mediterranean
• Roman Republic founded
• Gautama Buddha founds Buddhism in India. It becomes a major world religion.
• Tao Te Ching written (traditional date)
• Confucius formulates his ethical system of Confucianism, which proves highly influential in China
• The Sinhalese emigrate to Sri Lanka
• Apparent writing of the Book of Psalms
• The prophet Lehi, according to the Book of Mormon, leaves Jerusalem and settles in North America.
• Abkhazia is colonized by the Greeks.
• The celtic Bruthin or Priteni, invade Britain and Ireland the British Isles some time before the 5th century BC.

Significant persons

• Stesichorus of Sicily, lyric poet (c. 640-555 BC).
• Solon of Athens, one of the Seven Sages of Greece (638 – 558 BC).
• Thales, Greek mathematician ( 635 – 543 BC). Predicts solar eclipse in 585 BC.
• Pythagoras of Samos, Greek mathematician. See Pythagorean theorem. (582 – 496 BC).
• Cyrus the Great, king of Persia ( 576 – 529 BC, reigned 559 – 529 BC).
• Gautama Buddha, founding figure of Buddhism (c. 563 – 483 BC).
• Confucius, founding figure of Confucianism (551 – 479 BC).
• Aeschylus of Athens, playwright (525 – 456 BC).
• Darius I, King of Persia (reigned 521 – 485 BC).
• Lehi, first prophet recorded in the Book of Mormon

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• First archeological surveys of the Arabian peninsula by Babylonian king Nabonidus.