The Achaemenid Empire, 550 - 420 B.C.

The Persian Empire grew in the vacuum left by Assyria's destruction of the Kingdom of Elam. Prince Teispes captured Anshan, once a stonghold of the Elamites and began to call himself "King of the City of Anshan". His father, Achaemenes 681 BC, a warrior chief, is apparently responsible for training and organising the early Persian army and it is his name that begins the royal line of Achaemenian Kings.