9th Grade Bible Practice Exam

Power in the ancient Near East often shifted as empires expanded. Babylon, the center of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, fell to the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great around 539 BCE. Cyrus’s campaign led Nabonidus to surrender, and Babylon became part of the vast Persian (Achaemenid) realm. This event is the moment when Persia conquered Babylon, ending its independent rule. Greece and Egypt did not subdue Babylon in this period, and Rome would only reach Mesopotamia many centuries later, well after Babylon’s decisive conquest by Persia.