Classical Antiquity: 500 BCE – 7th

Classical Antiquity: 500 BCE – 7th century CE. After Cyrus II took Babylon, the bulk of Mesopotamia became part of the Parthian Empire and this period saw a rapid cultural decline most notably in the loss of the knowledge of cuneiform script. The conquest of the Persians by Alexander the Great brought Hellenization of the culture and religion and, even though Alexander tried to again make Babylon a city of consequence, its days of glory were a thing of the past. By the time of the conquest by the Roman Empire, Mesopotamia was a largely Hellenized region which had forgotten the old gods and the old ways. The Romans improved the infrastructure of their colonies significantly through their introduction of better roads and plumbing and brought Roman Law to the land. The entire culture of the land once known as Mesopotamia was swept away in the final conquest of the region by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century CE which resulted in the unification of law, language, religion and culture under Islam.