ABSTRACT
The sixth century had witnessed both the development towards democracy in Athens and, in Asia, the founding of the Persian empire, which was to last until the time of Alexander the Great. The reign of the great conqueror Cyrus, who subdued the kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon, Media and Lydia, was more or less contemporary with the tyranny ofPeisistratus, from 56o to 530. His son Cambyses conquered Egypt and was succeeded in 521 by Darius, the son of Hystaspes, who launched the first Persian expedition against Greece.
