485 BC
Darius I, one of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty of the Persia, dies and is succeeded by his son, Xerxes I. During this time the Persian empire extends as far west as Macedonia and Libya and as far east as the Hyphasis (Beas) River; it stretches to the Caucasus Mountains and the Aral Sea in the north and to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Desert in the south.