Timeline of Cyrus the Great's life:
- 600 BC - Born in Anshan, Persis (present-day Fars Province, Iran)
- 559 BC - Succeeded to the throne following his father's death
- 553 BC - Successfully rebels against the Medes and establishes the Achaemenid Empire of Persia
- 550 BC - Defeats Astyages of the Medes and decides to found Pasargadae at the site of the battle
- 546 BC - Begins construction of Pasargadae
- 544 BC - Foundation of Cyropolis on the Iaxartes river
- 539 BC - Conquers Babylon; the Fertile Crescent is controlled by the Achaemenid Empire (The First Persian Empire)
- 530 BC - Killed by the Massagetae of Tomyris' army near the Iaxartes
"And those who were subject to him, he treated with esteem and regard, as if they were his own children, while his subjects themselves respected Cyrus as their Father ... What other man but 'Cyrus', after having overturned an empire, ever died with the title of The Father from the people whom he had brought under his power? For it is plain fact that this is a name for one that bestows, rather than for one that takes away!"
--Xenophon, in The Cyropaedia : or, Institution of Cyrus, and the Hellenics, or Grecian history