The defeat of Croesus of Lydia by Cyrus the Great on the capture of Sardis, c.546 BC. Croesus, 595 BC - c. 546 BC. King of Lydia. Cyrus II of Persia, c. 600 - 530 BC, aka Cyrus the Greator Cyrus the Elder. Founder of the Achaemenid Empire. From Hutchinson's History of the Nations, published 1915