Cyrus Captures Babylon

Setting the scene

By 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great had built the Persian Achaemenid Empire, conquering Media, Lydia, and much of the Near East. Babylon, under King Nabonidus, was the last major power resisting Persia. Nabonidus was unpopular—he had neglected the cult of Marduk, Babylon's chief god, favoring the moon god Sin, and spent years in Arabia, leaving his son Belshazzar as regent. Babylon was wealthy but politically divided, with priests and nobles alienated from Nabonidus.

What happened

In October 539 BCE, Cyrus's army, led by General Gobryas, approached Babylon. According to Herodotus, the Persians diverted the Euphrates River, which ran through Babylon, allowing soldiers to march through the riverbed and enter the city through gates left open during a festival. The Nabonidus Chronicle, a Babylonian source, states Babylon fell without a battle on October 12, 539 BCE. Nabonidus fled but was captured. Cyrus entered the city peacefully, presenting himself as a liberator chosen by Marduk. He famously allowed the Jews exiled in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple.

Why it still matters

Cyrus's capture of Babylon in 539 BCE created the largest empire the world had yet seen, stretching from India to Greece. It ended the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the last Mesopotamian native dynasty. Cyrus's policy of religious tolerance and respect for local customs—enshrined in the Cyrus Cylinder, sometimes called the first human rights charter—became a model for Persian rule. The fall of Babylon is described in the Bible's Book of Daniel ('the writing on the wall'). Cyrus's conquest shifted the Near East's center from Mesopotamia to Persia and enabled the return of the Jews, profoundly shaping Judaism and, by extension, Christianity and Islam. The event marks the rise of Persia as a world power.

Background

The Persian Empire became the dominant power in the Near East. Even centuries later, this episode remains a reference point for how empires rise, fracture, and transform.