Orazio Riminaldi, Clovis, 1625.
Clovis
(Latin: Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: *Hlodowig; c. 466 – 27 November 511) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single king and ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs.He is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries.
Clovis succeeded his father, Childeric I, as a king of Salian Franks in 481, and eventually came to rule an area extending from what is now the southern Netherlands to northern France, corresponding in Roman terms to Gallia Belgica (northern Gaul). At the Battle of Soissons (486) he established his military dominance of the rump state of the fragmenting Western Roman Empire which was then under the command of Syagrius. By the time of his death in either 511 or 513, Clovis had conquered several smaller Frankish kingdoms in the northeast of Gaul including some northern parts of what is now France. Clovis also conquered the Alemanni tribes in eastern Gaul, and the Visigothic kingdom of Aquitania in the southwest. These campaigns added significantly to Clovis's domains, and established his dynasty as a major political and military presence in western Europe.
Clovis is important in the historiography of France as "the first king of what would become France"
“Thus did you do to the vase at Soissons! ". Illustration by Alphonse de Neuville for The History of France: From the Earliest Times to 1789, Told to My Grandchildren by François Guizot
The captive Syagrius is brought before Clovis of the Franks in 487AD.
486
The Battle of Soissons
was fought in 486 between Frankish forces under Clovis I and the Gallo-Roman domain of Soissons under Syagrius. The battle was a victory for the Franks, and led to the conquest of the Roman rump state of Soissons, a milestone for the Franks in their attempt to establish themselves as a major regional power.
An early illustration of a mythologized Theodoric killing Odoacer in a joust. From the Chronica Theodericiana (1181).
Campaign map of the Second Franco-Visigothic War.
492
Franco-Visigothic Wars
The Franco-Visigothic Wars were a series of wars between the Franks and the Visigoths, but it also involved the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths and the Romans. The most noteworthy war of the conflict would be the Second Franco-Visigothic War that included the famous Battle of Vouillé and resulted in Frankish annexation of most of Southern France.
496
Battle of Tolbiac
The Battle of Tolbiac was fought between the Franks, who were fighting under Clovis I, and the Alamanni, whose leader is not known. The date of the battle has traditionally been given as 496, though other accounts suggest it may either have been fought earlier, in the 480s or early 490s, or later, in 506. The site of "Tolbiac", or "Tolbiacum", is usually given as Zülpich, North Rhine-Westphalia, about 60 km east of what is now the German-Belgian frontier. The Franks were successful at Tolbiac and established their dominance over the Alamanni.
Baptism of Clovis, painting by François-Louis Dejuinne produced in 1837 for the Historical Galleries of the Museum of the Palace of Versailles.
498
The baptism of Clovis
is the sacrament symbolizing the conversion of the King of the Franks Clovis I to the Christian religion. The ceremony, organized by Bishop Remi on Christmas Eve3, December 24 or 25 in the baptistery of the church which was located on the site of Reims cathedral according to an almost unanimous tradition4, takes place on an uncertain date which is debated among historians. Historiography, based on the History of the Franks by Grégoire de Tours, has long fixed this date at Christmas 496, after the battle of Tolbiac, but it would rather be between 498 or 499 according to the majority of historians, even if some lean towards a later conversion, in 505 or even 5086.7.
499
aryabhatiya.
Aryabhata (ISO: Āryabhaṭa) or Aryabhata I (476–550 CE)was an Indian mathematician and astronomer of the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. He flourished in the Gupta period and produced works such as the Aryabhatiya (which mentions that in 3600 Kali Yuga, 499 CE, he was 23 years old) and the Arya-siddhanta.
Aryabhata created a system of phonemic number notation in which numbers were represented by consonant-vowel monosyllables. Later commentators such as Brahmagupta divide his work into Ganita ("Mathematics"), Kalakriya ("Calculations on Time") and Golapada ("Spherical Astronomy").
Aryabhata, mathematician and astronomer in Ancient India.
Map of the Byzantine-Iranian frontier during the reign of Kavad I
Anastasius I (center) alongside his wife Ariadne (right) on the consular diptych of his grandnephew Sabinianus Anastasius (AD 517). The third figure may be the co-consul Agapitus.
Ruins of rock-cut building in Daras
Ruins of the fortifications at Dara.
The walls of Amida.
Sassanid Fortress Naryn-Kala (Derbent)Dagestan
Citadel Naryn-Kala
Plate of a Sasanian king hunting rams, perhaps Kavad I.
502-506
Anastasian War
The Anastasian War was fought from 502 to 506 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire. It was the first major conflict between the two powers since 440, and would be the prelude to a long series of destructive conflicts between the two empires over the next century.
Several factors underlay the termination of the longest period of peace the Eastern Roman and the Sassanid Empire ever enjoyed. The Persian king Kavad I needed money to pay his debts to the Hephthalites who had helped him regain his throne in 498/499. The situation was exacerbated by recent changes in the flow of the Tigris in Lower Mesopotamia, sparking famines and flood. When the Roman emperor Anastasius I refused to provide any help, Kavad tried to gain the money by force.
506
The Breviary of Alaric
(Breviarium Alaricianum or Lex Romana Visigothorum) is a collection of Roman law, compiled by Roman jurists and issued by referendary Anianus on the order of Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, with the approval of his bishops and nobles. It was promulgated on 2 February 506 , the 22nd year of his reign. It applied, not to the Visigothic nobles who lived under their own law, which had been formulated by Euric, but to the Hispano-Roman and Gallo-Roman population, living under Visigoth rule south of the Loire and, in Book 16, to the members of the Trinitarian Catholic Church; the Visigoths were Arian and maintained their own clergy.
Breviary of Alaric, heritage library of Clermont Auvergne Métropole in Clermont-Ferrand, call number MS 201.
Tomb of Clovis I at the Basilica of St Denis in Saint Denis
511
The First Council of Orléans
was convoked by Clovis I, King of the Franks, in 511. Clovis called for this synod four years after his victory over the Visigoths under Alaric II at the Battle of Vouillé in 507. The council was attended by thirty-two bishops, including four metropolitans, from across Gaul, and together they passed thirty-one decrees. The bishops met at Orléans to reform the church and construct a strong relationship between the crown and the Catholic episcopate, the majority of the canons reflecting compromise between these two institutions.
The 511 Council of Orléans was the first national Merovingian church council. It was an important milestone in creating a unified Gallic Church under Frankish rule, and accordingly the matters addressed at the council reflected the concerns of the Catholic episcopate in this new political context. The council established a Merovingian conciliar tradition, being the first of ‘no less than forty-five provincial and national Church councils’ in the sixth century.
516
The Rule of Saint Benedict
(Latin: Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia (c. AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot
The spirit of Saint Benedict's Rule is summed up in the motto of the Benedictine Confederation: pax ("peace") and the traditional ora et labora ("pray and work"). Compared to other precepts, the Rule provides a moderate path between individual zeal and formulaic institutionalism; because of this middle ground it has been widely popular. Benedict's concerns were the needs of monks in a community environment: namely, to establish due order, to foster an understanding of the relational nature of human beings, and to provide a spiritual father to support and strengthen the individual's ascetic effort and the spiritual growth that is required for the fulfillment of the human vocation, theosis.
The oldest copy of the Rule of Saint Benedict, from the eighth century (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Hatton 48, fols. 6v–7r)
Ora et Labora (Pray and Work). This 1862 painting by John Rogers Herbert depicts monks at work in the fields.
Artist's rendition of the banner of the late Sassanid Empire.
The labarum is a symbol which displays the first two Greek letters of the word Christ (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ or Χριστός) — Chi (χ) and Rho (ρ).
526-532
Iberian War
The Iberian War was fought from 526 to 532 between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire over the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia—a Sasanian client state that defected to the Byzantines. Conflict erupted among tensions over tribute and the spice trade.
The Sasanians maintained the upper hand until 530 but the Byzantines recovered their position in battles at Dara and Satala while their Ghassanid allies defeated the Sasanian-aligned Lakhmids. A Sasanian victory at Callinicum in 531 continued the war for another year until the empires signed the "Perpetual Peace".
527-565
Justinian I (482 – 565), Byzantine emperor
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii, or "restoration of the Empire".This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire. His general, Belisarius, swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius, Narses, and other generals conquered the Ostrogothic kingdom, restoring Dalmatia, Sicily, Italy, and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths. The praetorian prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian peninsula, establishing the province of Spania. These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million solidi.During his reign, Justinian also subdued the Tzani, a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before. He engaged the Sasanian Empire in the east during Kavad I's reign, and later again during Khosrow I's reign; this second conflict was partially initiated due to his ambitions in the west.
Detail of a contemporary portrait mosaic of Justinian dressed in a royal purple chlamys and jeweled stemma in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. AD 547
Mosaic of a Vandal horseman, Carthage, c. 500
Campaign map of the war
A member of the retinue of Emperor Justinian I in the mosaic in the Church of San Vitale, Ravenna, which is usually identified with Belisarius
533-534
Vandalic War
The Vandalic War was a conflict fought in North Africa between the forces of the Byzantine Empire and the Vandalic Kingdom of Carthage in 533–534. It was the first of Justinian I's wars of the reconquest of the Western Roman Empire.
The Vandals occupied Roman North Africa in the early 5th century and established an independent kingdom there. Under their king, Geiseric, the Vandal navy carried out pirate attacks across the Mediterranean, sacked Rome, and defeated a Roman invasion in 468. After Geiseric's death, relations with the Eastern Roman Empire normalized, although tensions flared up occasionally due to the Vandals' adherence to Arianism and their persecution of the Nicene native population. In 530, a palace coup in Carthage overthrew the pro-Roman Hilderic and replaced him with his cousin Gelimer. The Eastern Roman emperor Justinian took this as a pretext to intervene in Vandal affairs, and after securing the eastern frontier with Sassanid Persia in 532 he began preparing an expedition under general Belisarius, whose secretary Procopius wrote the main historical narrative of the war. Justinian took advantage of rebellions in the remote Vandal provinces of Sardinia and Tripolitania. These not only distracted Gelimer from the Emperor's preparations but also weakened Vandal's defences through the dispatch of the bulk of the Vandal navy and army under Gelimer's brother Tzazon to Sardinia.
535-554
Gothic War
The Gothic War between the Eastern Roman Empire during the reign of Emperor Justinian I and the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy took place from 535 to 554 in the Italian Peninsula, Dalmatia, Sardinia, Sicily and Corsica. It was one of the last of the many Gothic Wars against the Roman Empire. The war had its roots in the ambition of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian I to recover the provinces of the former Western Roman Empire, which the Romans had lost to invading barbarian tribes in the previous century, during the Migration Period.
The war followed the Eastern Roman reconquest of the province of Africa from the Vandals. Historians commonly divide the war into two phases:
From 535 to 540: ending with the fall of the Ostrogothic capital Ravenna and the apparent reconquest of Italy by the Byzantines.
From 540/541 to 553: a Gothic revival under Totila, suppressed only after a long struggle by the Byzantine general Narses, who also repelled an invasion in 554 by the Franks and Alamanni.
In 554 Justinian promulgated the Pragmatic sanction which prescribed Italy's new government. Several cities in northern Italy held out against the East Romans until 562. By the end of the war, Italy had been devastated and depopulated. It was seen as a Pyrrhic victory for the East Romans, who found themselves incapable of resisting an invasion by the Lombards in 568, which resulted in Constantinople permanently losing control over large parts of the Italian Peninsula
Battle on the slopes of the Mount Vesuvius. Depiction by Alexander Zick, 1890.
537-838
Tikal–Calakmul wars
The Tikal–Calakmul wars were a series of wars, mainly between Tikal and Calakmul on the Yucatán Peninsula, but also with vassal states in the Petén Basin such as Copan, Dos Pilas, Naranjo, Sacul, Quiriguá, and briefly Yaxchilan had a role in initiating the first war.
In 537 the Ajaws of Bonampak, Lakamtuun, and Calakmul were captured by Yaxchilan. Bonampak and Lakamtuun remained under the control of Yaxchilan but in retaliation Calakmul conquered the latter. This gave the polity a adventagous strategic position with territory in both the east and the west of Tikal. In numerical terms, however, Calakmul remained inferior to Tikal: Despite being one of the most prosperous Maya cities, Calakmul housed just about 50,000 people, while its entire kingdom had a population of 200,000. In contrast, Tikal was home to almost half a million people. Both city states greatly eclipsed other Mayan polities, and have been described as "superpowers" that led rival power blocs.
One of the first battles in the war between Bonampak and Yaxchilan is elaborately painted at Bonampak
541-562
Lazic War
The Lazic War, also known as the Colchidian War or in Georgian historiography as the Great War of Egrisi was fought between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanian Empire for control of the ancient Georgian region of Lazica. The Lazic War lasted for twenty years, from 541 to 562, with varying success and ended in a victory for the Persians, who obtained an annual tribute in exchange for ending the war. The Lazic War is narrated in detail in the works of Procopius of Caesarea and Agathias.
The Treaty of Dara, also known as the Fifty-Year Peace, was a peace treaty concluded between the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) and Sassanid (Persian) empires at the frontier town of Dara in what is now southern Turkey in 562. The treaty, negotiated by Peter the Patrician for the Byzantine emperor Justinian I and Izadgushasp for the Sassanid king Khosrau I ended the 20-year-long war over the Caucasian kingdom of Lazica.The treaty contained 13 articles, and is well-recorded. It covered all parts of the two empires, Persarmenia, Lazica, the client states, and the Arab allies.
Byzantine Empire
Ruins of the Petra fortress and the Church of St. John the Baptist
The kingdom of Lazica (western Georgia) in Late Antiquity. Base map taken from Lazica.svg, sources: The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian, pp. 492-493. Cambridge University Press 2006; Greatrex, Geoffrey; Lieu, Samuel N. C.. The Roman Eastern Frontier and the Persian Wars (Part II, 363–630 AD). Routledge 2002, pp. xxx-xxxii
The remains of the Roman fortifications of Archaeopolis
Plate depicting Khosrow I.
The Siege of Constantinople in 626 depicted on the murals of the Moldovița Monastery, Romania.
Miniature from the Manasses Chronicle(1130) showing Emperor Heraclius attacking a Persian fort, while the Persians and Avars besiege Constantinople in 626.
568-626
Avar–Byzantine wars
The Avar–Byzantine wars were a series of conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and the Avar Khaganate. The conflicts were initiated in 568, after the Avars arrived in Pannonia, and claimed all the former land of the Gepids and Lombards as their own. This led to an unsuccessful attempt to seize the city of Sirmium from Byzantium, which had previously retaken it from the Gepids. Most subsequent conflicts came as a result of raids by the Avars, or their subject Slavs, into the Balkan provinces of the Byzantine Empire.
568
Kingdom of the Lombards
The Kingdom of the Lombards (Latin: Regnum Langobardorum; Italian: Regno dei Longobardi; Lombard: Regn di Lombard) also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy (Latin: Regnum totius Italiae), was an early medieval state established by the Lombards, a Germanic people, on the Italian Peninsula in the latter part of the 6th century. The king was traditionally elected by the very highest-ranking aristocrats, the dukes, as several attempts to establish a hereditary dynasty failed. The kingdom was subdivided into a varying number of duchies, ruled by semi-autonomous dukes, which were in turn subdivided into gastaldates at the municipal level. The capital of the kingdom and the center of its political life was Pavia in the modern northern Italian region of Lombardy.
Lombard shield boss northern Italy, 7th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Lombard S-shaped fibula
A glass drinking horn from Castel Trosino
Altar of Ratchis
Crypt of Sant'Eusebio, Pavia.
Plutei of Theodota, mid 8th century, Civic Museums of Pavia.
Lombard grave goods (6th–7th century), Milan, Lombardy
Paul the Deacon, historian of the Lombards, circa 720–799
Fresco of the Sasanian emperor Khosrow I's war against the Aksumite king Masruq ibn Abraha in Yemen
Persian miniature from Tarikh-i Bal'ami depicting the Sassanid military general Wahrez killing the Ethiopian Aksumite king Masruq ibn Abraha with an arrow
570-578
Aksumite–Persian wars
The Aksumite–Persian wars were a protracted series of armed engagements between the Sasanian Persian Empire and the Aksumite Empire for control over the waning Himyarite Kingdom in southern Arabia (modern-day Yemen) in the 6th century CE. After a decisive victory at the Battle of Hadhramaut in 570, the Sasanian military marched on and besieged Sana'a, following which the Aksumites were largely expelled from the Arabian Peninsula. The Persians instated the former Himyarite king Sayf ibn Dhī Yazan as the governor of the new Sasanian province of Yemen. However, Yazan was murdered by his Ethiopian servants four years into his reign, after which the Aksumites re-established their power in the region. Following the death of Yazan, the Sasanian army mounted a second invasion and re-conquered Yemen by 575–578, marking the end of Axumite rule in Arabia. After Sasanian control was firmly established in the region, the Persian military general Wahrez was installed as the direct governor of Yemen.
572-591
Byzantine–Sasanian War
The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 572–591 was a war fought between the Sasanian Empire of Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire, termed by modern historians as the Byzantine Empire. It was triggered by pro-Byzantine revolts in areas of the Caucasus under Persian hegemony, although other events also contributed to its outbreak. The fighting was largely confined to the southern Caucasus and Mesopotamia, although it also extended into eastern Anatolia, Syria, and northern Iran. It was part of an intense sequence of wars between these two empires which occupied the majority of the 6th and early 7th centuries. It was also the last of the many wars between them to follow a pattern in which fighting was largely confined to frontier provinces and neither side achieved any lasting occupation of enemy territory beyond this border zone. It preceded a much more wide-ranging and dramatic final conflict in the early 7th century.
Scene of Justin II in the 12th century Manasses Chronicle
Illustration of the forces of Bahram Chobin and Khosrow II fighting.
Bahram Chobin's night attack against the Sasanian loyalists at Nahrawan Canal near Ctesiphon.
14th-century miniature of the chief priest (mowbed) bringing food to the captive Izadgushasp, shortly before he is executed.
Bahram Chobin fighting Bagha Qaghan.Iran, Shiraz, circa 1560 Book: Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdawsi Manuscripts
King Khosrow sits before the chessboard, while his vizir and the Indian envoy of Kannauj are playing chess. Shahnama, 10th century CE.
Khosrow I holds a banquet for Bozorgmehr, his vizier.
Sun Simiao as depicted by Gan Bozong, woodcut print, Tang dynasty (618-907)
581
Sun simiao élixir d'immortalité
Sun Simiao (traditional Chinese: 孫思邈; simplified Chinese: 孙思邈; pinyin: Sūn Sīmiǎo; Wade–Giles: Sun Ssu-miao; died 682) was a Chinese physician and writer of the Sui and Tang dynasty. He was titled as China's King of Medicine (藥王; 药王, Yaowang) for his significant contributions to Chinese medicine and tremendous care to his patients.
Sun wrote two books - Beiji qianjin yaofang ("Essential Formulas for Emergencies [Worth] a Thousand Pieces/Catty of Gold") and Qian Jin Yi Fang ("Supplement to the Formulas of a Thousand Gold Worth") - that were both milestones in the history of Chinese medicine, summarizing pre-Tang dynasty medicine. The former listed about 5300 recipes for medicines, and the latter 2000. He also put forth the “Thirteen measures to keep health”, which claimed that actions like touching hair, rolling eyes, walking, and shaking heads improved health.
Apart from this, he is known for the text "On the Absolute Sincerity of Great Physicians," often called "the Chinese Hippocratic Oath," or called "Dayi Heart", which comes from the first chapter of the first of the above-mentioned two books. This portion of the book is still a required reading for Chinese physicians. The following is an excerpt of the text:
Apart from this, he is known for the text "On the Absolute Sincerity of Great Physicians," often called "the Chinese Hippocratic Oath," or called "Dayi Heart", which comes from the first chapter of the first of the above-mentioned two books. This portion of the book is still a required reading for Chinese physicians. The following is an excerpt of the text:
A Great Physician should not pay attention to status, wealth or age; neither should he question whether the particular person is attractive or unattractive, whether he is an enemy or friend, whether he is a Chinese or a foreigner, or finally, whether he is uneducated or educated. He should meet everyone on equal grounds. He should always act as if he were thinking of his close relatives.
The work Essential Subtleties on the Silver Sea (銀海精微, yínhǎi jīngwēi) was probably written by Sun Simiao. It was published at the end of the Yuan Dynasty (1271−1368) and has had wide influence on the Chinese ophthalmology until today.
In addition to his medical work, Sun also experimented in Chinese waidan external alchemy and may have been an initiated Daoist adept.
582-602
Maurice's Balkan campaigns
Maurice's Balkan campaigns were a series of military expeditions conducted by Roman Emperor Maurice (reigned 582–602) in an attempt to defend the Balkan provinces of the Roman Empire from the Avars and the South Slavs. Maurice was the only East Roman emperor, other than Anastasius I, who did his best to implement determined Balkan policies during Late Antiquity by paying adequate attention to the safety of the northern frontier against barbarian incursions. During the second half of his reign, the Balkan campaigns were the main focus of Maurice's foreign policies, as a favourable peace treaty with Persian Empire in 591 enabled him to shift his experienced troops from the Persian front to the region. The refocusing of Roman efforts soon paid off: the frequent Roman failures before 591 were succeeded by a string of successes afterwards.
Although it is widely believed that his campaigns were only a token measure[1] and that Roman rule over the Balkans collapsed immediately after his overthrow in 602,[2] Maurice was actually well on his way to forestalling the Slavic landfall on the Balkans and nearly preserved the order of Late Antiquity there.[citation needed] His success was undone only over ten years after his overthrow.
Retrospectively, the campaigns were the last in the series of classical Roman campaigns against the Barbarians on the Rhine and Danube, effectively delaying Slavic landfall on the Balkans by two decades. With respect to the Slavs, the campaigns had the typical trait of Roman campaigns against unorganized tribes and of what is now called asymmetric warfare.[citation needed]
Northern Balkans in the 6th century.
Æthelberht of Kent imagined in a statue at Canterbury Cathedral
Portrait labelled "AUGUSTINUS" from the mid-8th century Saint Petersburg Bede
Map of the general outlines of some of the British kingdoms in about 600
597
Augustin at Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury (early 6th century – probably 26 May 604) was a monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.
Augustine was the prior of a monastery in Rome when Pope Gregory the Great chose him in 595 to lead a mission, usually known as the Gregorian mission, to Britain to Christianize King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent from Anglo-Saxon paganism. Kent was probably chosen because Æthelberht had married a Christian princess, Bertha, daughter of Charibert I the King of Paris, who was expected to exert some influence over her husband. Before reaching Kent, the missionaries had considered turning back, but Gregory urged them on, and in 597, Augustine landed on the Isle of Thanet and proceeded to Æthelberht's main town of Canterbury.
King Æthelberht converted to Christianity and allowed the missionaries to preach freely, giving them land to found a monastery outside the city walls. Augustine was consecrated as a bishop and converted many of the king's subjects, including thousands during a mass baptism on Christmas Day in 597. Pope Gregory sent more missionaries in 601, along with encouraging letters and gifts for the churches, although attempts to persuade the native British bishops to submit to Augustine's authority failed. Roman bishops were established at London, and Rochester in 604, and a school was founded to train Anglo-Saxon priests and missionaries. Augustine also arranged the consecration of his successor, Laurence of Canterbury. The archbishop probably died in 604 and was soon revered as a saint.
602-628
Byzantine–Sasanian War
The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 was the final and most devastating of the series of wars fought between the Byzantine / Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire of Iran. The previous war between the two powers had ended in 591 after Emperor Maurice helped the Sasanian king Khosrow II regain his throne. In 602 Maurice was murdered by his political rival Phocas. Khosrow declared war, ostensibly to avenge the death of the deposed emperor Maurice. This became a decades-long conflict, the longest war in the series, and was fought throughout the Middle East: in Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Armenia, the Aegean Sea and before the walls of Constantinople itself.
While the Persians proved largely successful during the first stage of the war from 602 to 622, conquering much of the Levant, Egypt, several islands in the Aegean Sea and parts of Anatolia, the ascendancy of the emperor Heraclius in 610 led, despite initial setbacks, to a status quo ante bellum. Heraclius' campaigns in Iranian lands from 622 to 626 forced the Persians onto the defensive, allowing his forces to regain momentum. Allied with the Avars and Slavs, the Persians made a final attempt to take Constantinople in 626, but were defeated there. In 627, allied with Turks, Heraclius invaded the heartland of Persia. A civil war broke out in Persia, during which the Persians killed their king, and sued for peace.
By the end of the conflict, both sides had exhausted their human and material resources and achieved very little. Consequently, they were vulnerable to the sudden emergence of the Islamic Rashidun Caliphate, whose forces invaded both empires only a few years after the war. The Muslim armies swiftly conquered the entire Sasanian Empire as well as the Byzantine territories in the Levant, the Caucasus, Egypt, and North Africa. In the following centuries, the Byzantine and Arab forces would fight a series of wars for control of the Near East.
An anachronistic illustration of the Battle of Nineveh (627) between Heraclius' army and the Persians under Khosrow II. Fresco by Piero della Francesca, ca. 1452
Sassanid King Khosrau II being vanquished by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, from a plaque on a 12th-century French cross. This is only allegorical, as Khosrau II never actually submitted in person to Heraclius.
Siege of Constantinople in 626 by the combined Sasanian, Avar, and Slavic forces depicted on the murals of the Moldovița Monastery, Romania
17th-century Shahnameh illustration of Khosrow II's arrest
Drawing of an unfinished rock relief on the right side panel, depicting a deer hunt.
Equestrian statue of Khosrow II.
A divine investiture scene, with the Zoroastrian divinities Ahura Mazda and Anahita each giving Khosrow II a diadem.
Rock relief on the left side panel, depicting a boar hunt.
This folio from Walters manuscript W.659 depicts Mount Bistun and the carvings of Khusraw, Shirin, and Farhad.
Solidus of Emperor Heraclius (aged 35-38). Constantinople mint. Struck 610-613. Helmeted and cuirassed facing bust, holding cross.
A gold coin of Khosrow II
A gold coin of the Emperor Phocas
Portrait painting of Emperor Gaozu (born Li Yuan, 566–635), the first Tang Emperor.
Tang dynasty Kai Yuan Tong Bao coin, first minted in 621 in Chang'an, a model for the Japanese 8th-century Wadōkaichin
Illustration of Byzantine embassy to Tang Taizong 643 CE
Tang emissaries to Sogdian King Varkhuman in Samarkand, 648–651 CE, Afrasiab murals
A Tang dynasty sancai statuette of Sogdian musicians riding on a Bactrian camel, 723 AD, Xi'an.
Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) receives Gar Tongtsen Yülsung, ambassador of the Tibetan Empire, at his court; later copy of an original painted in 641 by Yan Liben (600–673)
The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an), built in 652, repaired by Empress Wu Zetian in 704.
The Small Wild Goose Pagoda, built by 709, was adjacent to the Dajianfu Temple in Chang'an, where Buddhist monks gathered to translate Sanskrit texts into Chinese
The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an), built in 652, repaired by Empress Wu Zetian in 704.
A mural depicting a corner tower, most likely one of Chang'an, from the tomb of Prince Yide (d. 701) at the Qianling Mausoleum, dated 706
A Man Herding Horses, by Han Gan (706–783), a court artist under Xuanzong
Tomb figure of mounted warrior similar to the one unearthed from the tomb of Crown Prince Li Chongrun
Chinese officer of the Guard of Honour. Tomb of Princess Chang-le (长乐公主墓), Zhao Mausoleum, Shaanxi province. Tang Zhenguan year 17, i.e. 644 CE
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang giving audience to Zhang Guo, by Ren Renfa (1254–1327)
The Leshan Giant Buddha, 71 m (233 ft) high; begun in 713, completed in 803
Tang era gilt-gold bowl with lotus and animal motifs
Foreign ambassadors visiting the Tang court: The Gathering of Kings (王會圖), by Yan Liben (閻立本, 601–673 CE).
Map of the six major protectorates during the Tang dynasty, following Tang campaigns against the city-states in the Western Regions (640–648).
A 10th-century mural painting in the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang showing monastic architecture from Mount Wutai, Tang dynasty; Japanese architecture of this period was influenced by Tang Chinese architecture
A contract from the Tang dynasty that records the purchase of a 15-year-old slave for six bolts of plain silk and five Chinese coins. Found in the Astana Cemetery in Turfan.
The Dunhuang map, a star map showing the North Polar region. c. 700. The whole set of star maps contains over 1,300 stars.
Palace ladies in a garden from a mural of Prince Li Xian's tomb in the Qianling Mausoleum, where Wu Zetian was also buried in 706
618
dynasty tang
The Tang dynasty (/tɑːŋ/,[3] [tʰǎŋ]; Chinese: 唐朝[a]), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilization, and a golden age of cosmopolitan culture.[5] Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty.
The Lǐ family (李) founded the dynasty, seizing power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire and inaugurating a period of progress and stability in the first half of the dynasty's rule. The dynasty was formally interrupted during 690–705 when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Wu Zhou dynasty and becoming the only legitimate Chinese empress regnant. The devastating An Lushan Rebellion (755–763) shook the nation and led to the decline of central authority in the dynasty's latter half. Like the previous Sui dynasty, the Tang maintained a civil-service system by recruiting scholar-officials through standardized examinations and recommendations to office. The rise of regional military governors known as jiedushi during the 9th century undermined this civil order. The dynasty and central government went into decline by the latter half of the 9th century; agrarian rebellions resulted in mass population loss and displacement, widespread poverty, and further government dysfunction that ultimately ended the dynasty in 907.
The Tang capital at Chang'an (present-day Xi'an) was then the world's most populous city. Two censuses of the 7th and 8th centuries estimated the empire's population at about 50 million people, which grew to an estimated 80 million by the dynasty's end.From its numerous subjects, the dynasty raised professional and conscripted armies of hundreds of thousands of troops to contend with nomadic powers for control of Inner Asia and the lucrative trade-routes along the Silk Road. Far-flung kingdoms and states paid tribute to the Tang court, while the Tang also indirectly controlled several regions through a protectorate system. In addition to its political hegemony, the Tang exerted a powerful cultural influence over neighboring East Asian nations such as Japan and Korea.
Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era. It is traditionally considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry.[10] Two of China's most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, contributing with poets such as Wang Wei to the monumental Three Hundred Tang Poems. Many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, and Zhou Fang were active, while Chinese court music flourished with instruments such as the popular pipa. Tang scholars compiled a rich variety of historical literature, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works. Notable innovations included the development of woodblock printing. Buddhism became a major influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence. However, in the 840s, Emperor Wuzong enacted policies to suppress Buddhism, which subsequently declined in influence.
630
Byzantine–Arab Wars
By 630, the Arabs had unified all the tribes of the Hijaz, previously too divided to pose a serious military challenge to the Byzantines or the Persians. They composed one of the most powerful states in the region. The first conflict between the Byzantines and the Arabs was the Battle of Mu'tah in September 629. A small Arabs skirmishing force attacked the province of Arabia in response to the Arabs ambassador's death at the hands of the Ghassanid Roman governor, but were repulsed. Since the engagement was a Byzantine victory, there was no apparent reason to make changes to the military organization of the region. The Roman military wasn't accustomed to fighting Arab armies at scale, much like the Islamic forces of Hijaz who had no prior experience in their engagements against the Romans. Even the Strategicon of Maurice, a manual of war praised for the variety of enemies it covers, does not mention warfare against Arabs at any length.The religious zeal of the Arab army, which was a recent development following the rise of Islam, ultimately contributed to the latter's success in its campaigns against the Romans.
The following year, the Arabs launched an offensive into the Arabah south of Lake Tiberias, taking al-Karak. Other raids penetrated into the Negev, reaching as far as Gaza. The Battle of Yarmouk in 636 resulted in a crushing defeat for the larger Byzantine army; within three years, the Levant had been lost again. Heraclius died of an illness on 11 February 641 ; and most of Egypt had fallen by that time as well.
