530 B.C. The Scythians attack Assyria. There are revolutions all over the Kingdom. 608 B.C. Nineveh is destroyed. Assyria disappears from the map. 608-538 B.C. The Chaldeans reestablish the Babylonian Kingdom. 604-561 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem, takes Phoenicia and makes Babylon the center of civilization. 538 B.C. Mesopotamia becomes a Persian province. 330 B.C. Alexander the Great conquers Mesopotamia. THE PHOENICIANS 1500-1200 B.C. The city of Sklon is the chief Phoenician center of trade. 1100-950 B.C. Tyre becomes the commercial center of Phoenicia. 1000-600 B.C. Development of the Phoenician colonial Empire. 850 B.C. Carthage is founded. 586-573 B.C. Siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. The city is captured and destroyed. 538 B.C. Phoenicia becomes a Persian province. 60 B.C. Phoenicia becomes part of the Roman Empire. [Illustration: A Persian altar] THE PERSIANS At an unknown date the Indo-European people began their march into Europe and into India. The year 1000 B.C. is usually given for Zarathustra, the great teacher of the Persians, who gave an excellent moral law. 650-B.C. The Indo-European Medes found a state along the eastern boundaries of Babylonia. 550-330 B.C. The Kingdom of the Persians. Beginning of the struggle between Indo-Europeans and Semites. 525-8.C. Cambyses, King of the Persians, takes Egypt. 520-485 B.C. Rule of Darius, King of the Persians, who conquers Babylon and attacks Greece. 485-465 B.C. Rule of King Xerxes, who tries to establish himself in eastern Europe but fails. 330 B.C. The Greek, Alexander the Great, conquers all of western Asia and Egypt and Persia becomes a Greek Province. The ancient world which was dominated by Semitic peoples lasted almost forty centuries. In the fourth century before the birth of Christ it died of old age. Western Asia and Egypt had been the teachers of the Indo-Europeans who had occupied Europe at an unknown date. In the fourth century before Christ, the Indo-European pupils had so far surpassed their teachers that they could begin their conquest of the world. The famous expedition of Alexander the Great in 330 B.C. made an end to the civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia and established the supremacy of Greek (that is European) culture.