Achaemenid Empire (Xšāça) (jan 1, 550 BC – jan 1, 330 BC)

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The Achaemenid Empire (/əˈkiːmənɪd/; romanized: Xšāça, lit. 'The Empire'), also called the First Persian Empire,[16] was an ancient Iranian empire that was based in Western Asia and founded by the king Cyrus the Great. The empire reached its greatest extent under king Xerxes I, who conquered most of Northern and Central Greece, including Athens, in 480 BC. At its greatest extent, the empire stretched from the Balkans and Eastern Europe to the Indus Valley in the east. The empire was larger than any previous empire in history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles).

The empire has its beginnings in the 7th century BC, when the Persians settled in the south-western portion of the Iranian Plateau, in the region of Persis. From this region, the former king Cyrus the Great went on to defeat the Medes, Lydia, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire and established the Achaemenid Empire.

The Achaemenid Empire is known for imposing a successful model of centralized, bureaucratic administration via the use of satraps; its multicultural policy; building infrastructure, such as road systems and a postal system; the use of an official language across its territories; and the development of civil services including its possession of a large, professional army. The empire's successes inspired the usage of similar systems in later empires.

Alexander the Great, an ardent admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered most of the empire by 330 BC. Upon Alexander's death, most of the former territory of the empire fell to the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Iranian elites of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire.

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