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World at War

Achaemenid Persian Conquests

559–486 BC Middle East / Egypt Status: ended Casualties: Hundreds of thousands across decades

Cyrus the Great in twenty years went from vassal to ruler of the largest empire the world had seen — Media, Lydia, Babylon. Cambyses took Egypt; Darius pushed to the Indus and across the Bosporus. The first empire to span three continents.

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Belligerents

  • Persia (Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius)
  • Media
  • Lydia
  • Babylon
  • Egypt
  • Scythia

Casualties

Hundreds of thousands across decades

From World at War, an interactive atlas by Jairus Pereira. Figures are approximate, drawn from Wikipedia, UCDP, ACLED and academic sources — a design artefact, not an authoritative register. Contact.