540s BC: Encyclopedia - 540s BC

540s BC

Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC

Decades: 590s BC - 580s BC - 570s BC - 560s BC - 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC

540s BC - Events and trends

• 547 BC -- Croesus, Lydian king, is defeated by Cyrus of Persia near the River Halys.
• 546 BC -- Cyrus of Persia completes his conquest of Lydia, and makes Pasargadae his capital.
• 544 BC -- People of Teos migrate to Abdera, Thrace to escape the yoke of Persia.
• 544 BC -- Zhou Jing Wang becomes King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
• 543 BC -- North Indian Prince Vijaya invades Ceylon and establishes a Sinhalese dynasty.
• 543 BC -- Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, purifies the island of Delos (approximate date).
• 540 BC -- Greek city of Elea of sothern Italy founded (approximate date).

540s BC - Significant people

• 549 BC -- Birth of Darius I.
• 547 BC -- Death of Croesus.
• 546 BC -- Death of Anaximander, Greek philosopher (approximate date)
• 545 BC -- Death of Zhou ling wang, King of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
• 543 BC -- Death of Gautama Buddha (traditional in Thailand and elsewhere - basis of the Thai solar calendar).
• 543 BC -- Death of Thales, Greek philosopher.
• 540 BC -- Amyntas I becomes king of Macedonia (approximate date)

Category: 540s BC

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "540s BC", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki