The Achaemenids end Babylonian rule in Lebanon, when Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire, captures Babylon in 539-38 BCE and Babylonian province of Phoenicia and its neighbors pass into Persian hands.

Cambyses (529-22 BCE), Cyrus's son and successor, continues his father's policy of conquest and in 529 BCE becomes suzerain of Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt.

The Phoenician navy supports Persia during the Greco-Persian War (490-49 BCE), but when the Phoenicians are overburdened with heavy tributes imposed by the successors of Darius I (521-485 BC), revolts and rebellions resume in the Lebanese coastal cities.The Persian Empire, including the Phoenician province, eventually falls to Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia in 4th century BCE.