Achaemenid Phoenicia

Achaemenid Phoenicia
Province of the Persian Empire
←   ← c.538 BC–c.332 BC →
Phoenicia within The Achaemenid Empire, 500 BC.
Capital		Tyre
Historical era		Achaemenid Empire
•	Cyrus invasion of Babylonia	c.538 BC
•	Conquests of Alexander the Great	c.332 BC

Persian style two-headed bull protome found in Sidon . Marble, 5th century BC

Achaemenid Provinces during the rule of Darius I

The Achaemenids ended Babylonian rule in Lebanon, when Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire, captured Babylon in 539-38 BC and Babylonian province of Phoenicia and its neighbors passed into Persian hands. Cambyses (529-22 BC), Cyrus's son and successor, continued his father's policy of conquest and in 529 BC became suzerain of Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. The Phoenician navy supported Persia during the Greco-Persian War (490-49 BC). But when the Phoenicians were overburdened with heavy tributes imposed by the successors of Darius I (521-485 BC), revolts and rebellions resumed in the Lebanese coastal cities.

The Persian Empire, including the Phoenician province, eventually fell to Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia in 4th century BC.