6th Century BC

Events in the 6th Century BC 12

• 14000 BC – 300 BC Jomon period World's earliest pottery — hunter-gatherers of the islands The Jomon period is named for the cord-marked (jomon) pottery its people produced — among the oldest pottery in the world. These were sophisticated hunter-gatherers, fishers and foragers who lived a largely sedentary life in the Japanese archipelago for over ten thousand years, long before agriculture arrived.
• 1500 BC – 500 BC Vedic period — the Vedas composed Sanskrit hymns and the roots of Hinduism Following the Indus decline, the Vedic period saw the composition of the Vedas — the oldest scriptures of Hinduism — in archaic Sanskrit. This era shaped Indian religion, the caste system, and the philosophical traditions later expressed in the Upanishads.
• 1200 BC – 550 BC Zoroaster and the rise of Zoroastrianism One of the world's earliest monotheistic faiths The prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra) taught a dualist vision of a single supreme god, Ahura Mazda, locked in cosmic struggle with evil. Zoroastrianism became the dominant religion of the Persian empires for over a thousand years and influenced ideas of heaven, hell and judgement in later faiths.
• 753 BC – 476 The Roman Civilisation The Roman civilisation — kingdom, republic and empire — shaped Western law, language, architecture, religion and governance more profoundly than any other ancient civilisation. From the legendary founding of Rome by Romulus in 753 BC to the deposition of the last western emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476 AD, Rome endured for over twelve centuries, governing at its peak an empire of 70 million people stretching from Scotland to Mesopotamia.
• 678 BC – 550 BC Median Empire The Medes unify the Iranian peoples The Medes were the first to unify the Iranian tribes into a single state, overthrowing Assyrian dominance and forging an empire across the plateau. Their kingdom was absorbed by Cyrus the Great when he founded the Achaemenid empire, but it laid the groundwork for a unified Iran.
• 616 BC – 578 BC Tarquinius Priscus — Etruscan influence begins Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, is the first of the Etruscan dynasty. Under him Rome begins its transformation from a village into a city: the Forum is drained, the Circus Maximus laid out, the Capitoline temple begun. Etruscan engineering, art and religious practice flood into Rome. The triumphal procession, the fasces, the toga — all are Etruscan borrowings that become permanently Roman.
• 578 BC – 534 BC Servius Tullius — the great reformer Servius Tullius, sixth king, transforms Roman society through the census — a systematic count of citizens classified by wealth into voting classes. The Servian constitution creates the comitia centuriata (assembly of centuries), tying military obligation to political rights. He also expands Rome's boundaries with the Servian Wall and creates the four urban tribes. His reforms lay the constitutional foundations that will persist through the Republic.
• 551 BC – 479 BC Confucius 551–479 BC — founder of Confucianism Kong Qiu (Confucius) was born in the state of Lu in 551 BC. His teachings on social harmony, filial piety, ritual propriety and benevolent government became the foundation of Chinese civilisation for 2,500 years. His conversations were recorded by disciples in the Analects. Confucianism shaped Chinese government, education, family structure and ethics more profoundly than any other single thinker.
• 550 BC – 330 BC Achaemenid Empire — First Persian Empire The largest empire the ancient world had yet seen Founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from the Balkans and Egypt to the Indus Valley — the largest empire the world had yet seen. It was renowned for its tolerance of subject peoples, its network of royal roads and the administrative system of satrapies.
• 534 BC – 509 BC Tarquinius Superbus — the last king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin the Proud), seventh and final king of Rome, rules by terror. He murders his father-in-law Servius Tullius, abolishes the Senate's power, and rules as a tyrant in the Greek mould. His son Sextus rapes the noblewoman Lucretia, who kills herself after naming her assailants. Her kinsman Lucius Junius Brutus leads the aristocratic revolt that expels the Tarquins in 509 BC, ending the monarchy forever.
• 522 BC – 486 BC Darius the Great Empire at its zenith; Persepolis built Darius I brought the Achaemenid Empire to its greatest extent and organised it into provinces governed by satraps, with a common coinage, road network and postal system. He began the great ceremonial capital at Persepolis. His invasions of Greece, however, met defeat at Marathon in 490 BC.
• 509 BC Foundation of the Roman Republic The expulsion of Tarquinius Superbus in 509 BC establishes the Roman Republic. Power is divided between two annually elected consuls — neither can accumulate the tyrannical power of a king. The Senate, composed of former magistrates, guides foreign policy and controls the treasury. The system of checks and balances — collegiality, annual terms, the veto — becomes the constitutional model Rome will follow for nearly five centuries.