530s BC

Millennium:	1st millennium BC
Centuries:	7th century BC – 6th century BC – 5th century BC
Decades:	560s BC 550s BC 540s BC – 530s BC – 520s BC 510s BC 500s BC
Years:	539 BC 538 BC 537 BC 536 BC 535 BC 534 BC 533 BC 532 BC 531 BC 530 BC
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

Events and trends

• 539 BC—Babylon is conquered by Cyrus, defeating Nabonidus.
• 538 BC—Cyrus, king of Persia, allows Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem.
• 535 BC—Phocaean Greek colonists clash at sea with Carthaginians and Etruscans in Battle of Alalia (Corsica).
• 534 BC
  • Lucius Tarquinius Superbus becomes seventh King of Rome, after murdering the sixth king Servius Tullius.
  • Competitions for tragedy are instituted at the City Dionysia festival in Athens.
• 530 BC
  • Cyrus II is killed in war against obscure tribes.
  • Cambyses starts to rule in Persia.
  • Royal Arch Masons take this year as the epoch for dating their documents Anno Inventionis after the beginning of the Second Temple by Zerubbabel.
• c. 530 BC—Temple of Apollo at Delphi is built.
• c. 530 BC—Peplos Kore, from the Acropolis, Athens, is made. It is now at Acropolis Museum, Athens.
• c. 530 BC—Kroisos(?) Kuoros, from a cemetery at Anavysos, near Athens is made. It is now at National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
• c. 530 BC—525 BC—Siphnian Treasury, Delphi, is built.
• c. 530 BC—525 BC—Battle between the Gods and the Giants, fragments of the north frieze of the Siphnian Treasury, from the Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi, is made. It is now at the Delphi Archaeological Museum.

Significant people

• 539 BC/538 BC—Death of Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon
• c. 535 BC—Birth of Heraclitus of Ephesus, Greek philosopher
• c. 531 BC—Death of Laozi, founder of Taoism (traditional date)