Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire was the first Persian Empire. Founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BCE, it ruled over Western Asia, conquering Egypt and reaching as far as Greece.
History
Around 524 BCE during his conquest of Egypt, Emperor Cambyses II sent an army of 50,000 soldiers to destroy the Oracle of Amun in Siwa, but it was buried in a sandstorm in the Isolated Desert.[1]
In what became known as the Greco-Persian Wars, the Persians attempted twice to subjugate the rebellious Greeks in the first half of the 5th century BCE.[2] In 465 BCE,[3] Emperor Xerxes I was assassinated by Darius in what became the first recorded usage of the Hidden Blade.[4][2]
The Achaemenid Empire ultimately fell to the might of Alexander the Great of Macedon in 330 BCE, but the restive locals assisted Iltani of the Babylonian Brotherhood in poisoning Alexander to death.[5]