Cyrus the Great and the Founding of the Empire

Cyrus II, "the Great," reigned roughly between 559 and 530 BCE and was the effective founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire as a great power. He defeated his overlord, the Median king Astyages, around 550 BCE, unifying Medes and Persians under his command, and then conquered the kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia, defeating the legendary king Croesus around 547-546 BCE. The conquest of Lydia handed Cyrus control of the wealthy Greek cities of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor. In 539 BCE Cyrus conquered Babylon, ending the Neo-Babylonian Empire, apparently with relatively little resistance according to the Babylonian Chronicles.