| NABONIDUS | Last king of Babylon before it fell to the Persian conqueror Cyrus The Great in 539 BC; father of Belshazzar (9) |
| TWOBICYCLES | What 26/78-Across built at home to flee Paris just hours before it fell to the Nazis |
| BELSHAZZAR | Last king of Babylon before its capture by Cyrus in 539 BC |
| OSLO | It fell to the Germans on April 9, 1940 |
| SUBSIDED | Became quieter when it fell to the bottom (8) |
| ABEDNEGO | In the Book of Daniel, one of three men thrown into a fiery pit for refusing to bow to an image of the king of Babylon (8) |
| BACTRIA | Ancient region spanning parts of modem Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, probably subdued in the sixth century BC by Persian king Cyrus the Great (7) |
| HAMMURABI | King of Babylon who became the first king of the Babylonian Empire following the abdication of his father, Sin-Muballit |
| CROESUS | The last king of Lydia, defeated by Cyrus the Great (7) |
| PERSIAN | Cyrus the Great ruled this empire, which extended from the Aegean Sea eastward to the Indus River. (7) |
| OMAN | The Gulf of ____ is connected to the Persian Gulf by the Strait of Hormuz |
| THEBES | Chief city of the ancient Greek region of Boeotia, destroyed by Alexander the Great in 336 BC (6) |
| ROXANA | Bactrian princess who married the Macedon king Alexander the Great in 327 BC, and to whom she bore Alexander IV (6) |
| ANTIGONUS | Macedonian nobleman who declared himself king after the death of Alexander the Great in 306 BC (9) |
| EZRA | Book that tells of the reign of Cyrus the Great |
| BARCELONA | Stronghold of the Spanish Republican cause until it fell to Franco's forces in 1939 (9) |
| NEHEMIAH | Book of the Bible named after a cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes (8) |
| CLAUDERAINS | Actor whose film roles include the lead in 1933's The Invisible Man and Herod The Great in 1965's The Greatest Story Ever Told (6,5) |
| FANNING | Elle, actress who played Catherine the Great in the TV comedy drama series The Great (7) |
| PERSIA | Empire created by Cyrus The Great, later conquered by Alexander The Great (6) |
