600s (decade)

The 600s decade ran from January 1, 600, to December 31, 609.

Millennium: 1st millennium
Centuries:
Decades:
Years:
Categories:
  • Births
  • Deaths
  • Establishments
  • Disestablishments

Events

600

By place

Europe
  • King Chlothar II of Neustria is defeated by his nephews, Theudebert II and Theuderic II, at Dormelles (approximate date).
  • Germanic and Slavic peoples have tremendous population growth, with the Slavs colonizing the Balkan Peninsula.[1]
  • Rome continues as part of the Byzantine Empire. The Italian mainland is divided into independent cities and duchies.[2]
  • Venice continues as an independent realm, having been built up from fishing villages and settled by fugitives.[3]
  • Dorestad, lying in a fork between two branches of the Rhine, is established by the Franks as a trade center.[4]
  • King Agilulf of the Lombards and Queen Theodelinda build a palace complex at Monza, northeast of Milan.
  • Moravians gain independence, by holding off the attacks from the Avars and the Franks who try to invade.
  • According to the Ynglinga saga, king Ingvar of Sweden invades Adalsysla (present day Lääne County in Estonia), but is killed by the locals (approximate date).[5]
  • Smallpox arrives in Western Europe for the first time (approximate date).
Britain
Asia
  • The first of the Japanese embassies to Imperial China is sent (approximate date).
  • The Persians begin to use windmills for irrigation (approximate date).
  • Namri Songtsen becomes the new king of Tibet (approximate date).
  • Chaturanga is played in its current form in India (approximate date).
  • Yangdi, a Sui emperor, extends the Grand Canal. He reportedly assumes power by poisoning his father. Ma Shu-mou, aka Mahu, was one of the canal overseers and was said to have eaten a steamed 2-year-old child each day he worked on the canal. On completion the canal extended for 1,100 miles. 5.5 million people were pressed into service to complete the 1,550 mile canal.
  • Quill pens, made from the outer feathers of crows and other large birds, became popular. The first books are printed in China.
  • The oldest inscription in Mon language dated from 600 AD. later found at Wat Phorang, Thailand.
  • Mu becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Baekje.[7]
Mesoamerica
  • Loma Caldera (El Salvador) erupts, burying the Maya village of Joya de Cerén (approximate date).
  • The Hopewell tradition (North America) ceases to be the dominant culture (approximate date).
  • The city of Teotihuacan (Central Mexico) begins to grow unstable, as they exhaust their resources until their inevitable collapse (possibly caused by the Toltec) circa 700.
  • Moche culture ends in the Andes (approximate date).
  • Nazca culture ends in the Andes (approximate date).
  • The Wari Empire is established in The Andes (approximate date)
  • The Middle Horizon period starts in the Andes.
Pacific Ocean

By topic

Arts and sciences
  • The Germanic peoples, due to the more abundant food supply available, use the "moldboard" plow, introduced by the Slavs in Eastern Europe. The plow works the land with horses and oxen.[8]
  • The earliest references to chess are made in the Persian work Karnamak-i-Artakhshatr-i-Papakan, and the Indian works of Subandhu's Vasavadatta and Banabhatta's Harsha Charitha.
  • 600-750 - Maguey Bloodletting Ritual, fragment of a fresco from Teotihuacan, Mexico, is made. Teotihuacan culture. It is now kept at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
  • 600-900 - Palace and Temple of the Inscriptions (tomb-pyramid of K'inich Janaab' Pakal), Palenque, Mexico, are built. Maya culture.
  • 600-900 - Cylindrical vessel is made. Maya culture. It is now kept at the Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey.
  • The Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (Voyage of St. Brendan the Abbott) recounts a 7-year trip to a land across the sea by the Irish saint and a band of acolytes about this time.
Religion
World
  • The population of the Earth rises to about 208 million people (approximate date).

601

By place

Byzantine Empire
Europe
  • The Franks, Merovingians and Carolingians successively control most of Europe, while strong feudal lords rise in power to gain the allegiance of the people.
  • The Lombards under King Agilulf expand into Northern Italy, establishing a settlement with the Franks and maintaining intermittent relationships with Rome.
  • Liuva II, age 18,[9] succeeds his father Reccared I as king of the Visigoths. Reccared dies a natural death at the capital in Toledo[10] after a 15-year reign.

By topic

Arts and sciences
Agriculture
  • Food production increases in northern and Western Europe as a result of agricultural technology introduced by the Slavs, who employ a lightweight plow with a knife blade (coulter), that cuts deep into the soil at grassroots level, together with a shaped board, or "moldboard", that moves the cut soil to one side.
Religion

602

By place

Byzantine Empire
  • Emperor Maurice succeeds in winning over the Avars to Byzantine rule, but his campaigns against the Avars, Lombards, Persians and Slavs drain the imperial treasury, requiring an increase in taxes. He orders the troops to stay for winter beyond the Danube, but a mutiny breaks out under Phocas. He brings the Byzantine forces back over the Danube and marches on to Constantinople.[11]
  • November 27 A civil war breaks out and Phocas enters Constantinople. Maurice is captured trying to escape; he is forced to witness the slaughter of his five sons and all his supporters, and is then executed (beheaded) after a 20-year reign. His wife, Constantina, and his three daughters are spared, and sent to a monastery. Phocas is proclaimed the new emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
  • Byzantine–Persian War: King Khosrau II launches an offensive against Constantinople, to avenge Maurice's death, his "friend and father", and tries to reconquer Byzantine territory. Narses, governor of Upper Mesopotamia, rebels against Phocas at the city of Edessa and requests aid from the Persians. Khosrau sends an expeditionary force to Armenia and crosses the Euphrates.
Europe
  • Spring Witteric is appointed commander-in-chief of the Visigoth army, and receives orders from King Liuva II to expel the Byzantines from Hispania.
Persia
  • Khosrau II annexes the Lakhmid Kingdom (Southern Iraq), and puts king Nu'man III to death.
Asia
  • Third Chinese domination of Vietnam: The Early Lý dynasty ends; Hậu Lý Nam Đế, last ruler of Vąn Xuân (North Vietnam), abdicates the throne and becomes a vassal of the Sui dynasty.
  • 602 Surb Karapet Monastery earthquake. It affected the Surb Karapet Monastery, located in the district of Taron.[12]

By topic

Religion

603

By place

Europe
  • Spring Witteric, counting on the support of the nobles, attacks the royal palace in Toledo, and overthrows King Liuva II. He cuts off his right hand, and has him executed. Witteric becomes the new king of the Visigoths.[14]
  • King Agilulf besieges Cremona, and with the assistance of the Slavs the city is destroyed. He captures Padua and Mantua (Northern Italy); its territory is divided between the Lombard duchies of Brescia and Bergamo.
  • Agilulf, under the influence of his wife Theodelinda, abandons Arianism for Catholicism, and is (with his son Adaloald) baptised in the Cathedral of Monza, where later the Iron Crown of Lombardy is installed.
  • The last mention of the Roman Senate is made (according to the Gregorian register). It mentions that the Senate has acclaimed new statues of Emperor Phocas and Empress Leontia.[15]
Britain
  • Battle of Degsastan: King Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeats the combined forces of the Strathclyde Britons and Scots under Áedán mac Gabráin, establishing the supremacy of the Angles in the northern part of what will become known as the British Isles.
Asia
  • Emperor Wéndi stabilises the Chinese Empire; the agricultural acreage increases greatly, and shipbuilding technology reaches a new high level.
  • Prince Shōtoku of Japan establishes a twelve level cap and rank system, and is said to have authored a seventeen-article constitution.
  • Rebellious Göktürks depose and kill the ambitious ruler (khagan) Tardu, of the Western Turkic Khaganate (Central Asia).
  • Heshana Khan succeeds his father Tardu as ruler of the Göktürks, and levies heavy taxes on the Tiele people.

By topic

Religion

604

By place

Byzantine Empire
Europe
  • Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia conspires to have Berthoald, Mayor of the Palace, assassinated. She convinces King Theuderic II to send him to inspect the royal villae along the Seine. Brunhilda then has the noblemen who actually carried out the murder arrested and killed.
  • December 25 Battle of Ėtampes: Theuderic II, with the aid of Berthoald, defeats the Frankish forces under King Chlothar II of Neustria, at Étampes (near Paris).
Britain
  • Æthelfrith of Northumbria invades Deira and kills its king, Æthelric.[18] Prince Edwin, son of the late king Ælla of Deira (possibly a nephew of Æthelric), flees to the court of King Iago of Gwynedd (northwest Wales).
  • Sæbert succeeds his father Sledd as king of Essex. He is persuaded to convert to Christianity through the intervention of his uncle, King Æthelberht of Kent.[19]
Asia

By topic

Religion

605

By place

Byzantine Empire
Britain
  • King Æthelfrith annexes the neighboring kingdom of Deira (Northern England). The region between the Forth and Humber rivers will hereafter be known as Northumbria, the most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Persia
  • As a result of a quarrel between the Lakhmids (Southern Iraq) and King Khosrau II, the Persian frontier with Arabia is no longer guarded (approximate date).
Asia
  • Emperor Yángdi orders the capital to be transferred from Chang'an to Luoyang. He begins the construction of the Grand Canal, that will link existing waterways to the new Chinese capital; it will be built by a million laborers.
  • Yángdi introduces an imperial examination, designed to select the best administrative officials (after they receive the jinshi) for the state; this begins a long bureaucratic tradition of scholar-officialdom in China.
  • The Zhaozhou Bridge is completed under the Sui Dynasty, the earliest known fully stone open-spandrel segmental arch bridge in the world (although the earlier Roman Trajan's Bridge featured segmental arches).
  • Amshuvarma becomes king of the Licchavi in Nepal. He is credited for opening trade routes to Tibet. His ruling period is known as the "Golden Period".
Mesoamerica

606

By place

Europe
  • Queen Brunhilda pressures her grandson Theuderic II to go to war against his brother, Theudebert II of Austrasia. She puts Protadius, Mayor of the Palace, in charge of the Burgundian army. At the palace of Quierzy (Picardy), Theuderic assembles his army. The soldiers under Uncelen, Duke of Alemannia, refuse to fight against their countrymen, and declare that the king orders Protadius' death. He is killed by the Frankish warriors, and Theuderic is forced to sign a peace treaty.
Britain
Asia
  • King Harsha of Thanesar establishes a northern Indian Empire, and unites the small monarchical states, from Punjab to the Indus Valley (modern Pakistan).[23]
  • Shashanka is the first recorded independent king of Bengal. He establishes his capital in modern-day Murshidabad (approximate date).

By topic

Religion
  • February 22 Sabinian dies at Rome after a two-year reign, and will not be replaced until 607.
  • The diocese of Aquileia becomes a patriarchate (approximate date).

607

By place

Europe
  • Visigoths, Austrasians, Neustrians and Lombards form an alliance against King Theuderic II of Burgundy, whose grandmother and sister have murdered Theuderic's wife Ermenberga, daughter of Witteric, king of the Visigoths. Fighting takes place around Narbonne, but little is known of the details or outcome (approximate date).
  • Queen Brunhilda has Uncelen, Duke of Alemannia, removed from office after his foot is cut off as revenge for Protadius' death (according to the Lex Alamannorum).
Britain
  • King Ceolwulf of Wessex fights the South Saxons.[24]
Asia
  • August 1 Empress Suiko appoints Ono no Imoko as official envoy to the Sui Court (Japanese missions to Imperial China). She sends him to pay tribute to Emperor Yángdi, and let him deliver the famous letter from prince-regent Shōtoku which begins: "The Son of Heaven where the sun rises (Japan), to the Son of Heaven where the sun sets (China), may good health be with you." (Traditional Japanese date: July 3, 607).
  • Yángdi is offended by his general Gao Jiong, who makes several comments critical of the emperor's policies, against Tujue submissive Yami Qaghan. He is executed (beheaded), and Gao's sons are exiled to the border provinces (Northern China).

By topic

Religion

608

By place

Byzantine Empire
Europe
Britain
Asia

By topic

Religion

609

By place

Byzantine Empire
Persia
  • Battle of Dhi Qar: Arab tribesmen of Bakr ibn Wa'il defeat a Persian force (5,000 men), at a watering place near Kufa (Southern Iraq).
Asia

By topic

Religion

Significant people

Births

600

  • September 11 Yuknoom the Great a Maya ruler of Calakmul
  • Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muslim caliph and Shī‘ah imām (approximate date)
  • Audomar, bishop of Thérouanne (approximate date)
  • Bhāskara I, Indian mathematician (approximate date)
  • Birinus, bishop of Dorchester (approximate date)
  • Candrakīrti, Indian Madhyamaka philosopher
  • Cunibert, bishop of Cologne (approximate date)
  • Judoc, Breton noble and Catholic saint (d. 668)
  • Li Shimin, son of Chinese General Li Yuan (the Duke of Tang)
  • Remaclus, bishop of Maastricht (approximate date)
  • Wandregisel, Frankish monk and abbot (approximate date)
  • Yan Liben, Chinese painter (approximate date)

601

602

603

  • Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali, Muslim scholar (approximate date)
  • Dagobert I, king of the Franks (d. 639)
  • Li Daozong, prince of the Tang Dynasty (approximate date)
  • Li Yuanji, prince of the Tang Dynasty (d. 626)
  • Pacal the Great, ruler (ajaw) of Palenque (d. 683)
  • Yeon Gaesomun, dictator of Goguryeo (d. 666)

604

605

  • Chlodulf, bishop of Metz
  • Colmán, bishop of Lindisfarne (approximate date)
  • Fatimah, daughter of Muhammad (approximate date)
  • Yang You, puppet emperor of the Sui Dynasty (d. 619)
  • Sisenand, king of the Visigoths (approximate date)
  • Yang Tong, puppet emperor of the Sui Dynasty (d. 619)

606

  • Hafsa bint Umar, daughter of Umar and wife of Muhammad
  • Han Yuan, chancellor of the Tang Dynasty (d. 659)

607

608

  • Charibert II, king of Aquitaine (approximate date)
  • Philibert of Jumièges, Frankish abbot (approximate date)

609

  • Audoin, bishop of Rouen (d. 686)
  • Hafsa bint Umar, wife of Muhammad (approximate date)

Deaths

600

601

  • March 13 or 600 Leander, bishop of Seville
  • Agilulf, bishop of Metz
  • Reccared I, king of the Visigoths (b. 559)
  • Bertha of Kent, Frankish-born Anglo-Saxon queen consort, canonized (b. c.565) (approximate date)
  • Sophia, Byzantine Empress consort (approximate date)

602

  • September 10 Dugu Qieluo, empress of the Chinese Sui dynasty (b. 544)
  • November 27 Maurice, Byzantine emperor (b. 539)
  • Nu'man III, king of the Lakhmids
  • Ariulf, Lombard duke of Spoleto
  • Bayan I, ruler (khagan) of the Avars
  • Comentiolus, Byzantine general (magister militum)
  • Peter, Byzantine general (curopalates)
  • Theodosius, Byzantine co-emperor
  • Tiberius, Byzantine prince
  • Lady Xian, Chinese general (b. 512)[28]

603

604

605

  • Alexander of Tralles, physician (approximate date)
  • Brandub mac Echach, king of Uí Ceinnselaig (Ireland)
  • Constantina, Byzantine empress (approximate date)
  • Damian, Coptic Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria

606

607

608

609

  • Qamishoʿ, Syriac Orthodox Grand Metropolitan of the East.[30]
  • Venantius Fortunatus, Latin poet and bishop (or 600)
  • Yang Lihua, empress of Northern Zhou (b. 561)
  • Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma, Arabian poet (approx.)

References

  1. McNeill, William H, "Plagues and Peoples". (Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York 1977)
  2. McEvedy, Colin, "The Penguin Atlas of Medieval History". (Rupert Hart-Davis and Crowell-Collier, U.S.A. 1978)
  3. Trager, James, "The Peoples Chronology". (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York, 1979)
  4. Sawyer P.H., "Kings & Vikings A.D, 600–1100". (Methuen, London & New York, 1982)
  5. Tvauri, Andres (2012). The Migration Period, Pre-Viking Age, and Viking Age in Estonia. p. 29. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  6. McVedy, Colin, "The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History". (Fletcher & Son Ltd., Norwich, England 1967)
  7. "List of Rulers of Korea". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  8. Tannahill, Reay, "Food in History". (Stein & Day, New York 1973)
  9. Roger Collins, "Visigothic Spain 409–711", (Blackwell Publishing,2004, p.73
  10. Ann Christys, "Christians in Al-Andalus, 711–1000", p. 37 (Curzon Press, 2002). ISBN 0-7007-1564-9
  11. Fine, John V. A. Jr. (1991) [1983]. The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 33. ISBN 0-472-08149-7.
  12. Guidoboni, Traina, 1995, p. 118
  13. The "Latin Library". Ad Fontes Academy, (2008)
  14. Roger Collins, "Visigothic Spain 409–711", p. 73
  15. Jeffrey Richards. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752, p. 246
  16. Fine, John V. A. Jr. (1991) [1983]. The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 33. ISBN 0-472-08149-7.
  17. Essential Histories: Rome at War AD 293–696 (2002), Michael Whitby, p. 60. ISBN 1-84176-359-4
  18. Bede, "Historia Ecclesiastica", I.34, III.6; "Historia Brittonum", chapter 61
  19. Geoffrey Hindley, A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons: "The beginnings of the English nation" New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers (2006), p. 33–36. ISBN 978-0-7867-1738-5
  20. W.G. Aston, trans., Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697, 2 vols. in 1 (London: Keagan and Co., 1896), vol. 2, p. 128–133
  21. "Ajen Yohl Mat". Archived from the original on August 11, 2014. Retrieved March 12, 2013.
  22. "Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens" by Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube
  23. "Harsha | Indian emperor". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
  24. ASC Parker MS. AD 607
  25. Essential Histories: Rome at War AD 293–696 (2002), Michael Whitby, p. 60. ISBN 1-84176-359-4
  26. Kaegi 2003, p. 41
  27. MacDonald 1976, p. 18
  28. Wade, Geoff (2014). Asian Expansions: The Historical Experiences of Polity Expansion in Asia. Routledge. p. 77. ISBN 9781135043537.
  29. The Oxford companion to Scottish history. Oxford University Press. p. 5. ISBN 9780199693054.
  30. Wilmshurst, David (2019). "West Syrian patriarchs and maphrians". In Daniel King (ed.). The Syriac World. Routledge. pp. 806–813.

Bibliography

  • MacDonald, William L. (1976). The Pantheon : design, meaning, and progeny. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-01019-1.
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