Timeline 500-550 (Interference)

The 6th century. Check the Totila-Belisarius alliance!

502 The Liang dynasty replaces the southern Qis on the throne at Nanking. King Dachi I makes Tbilisi the capital of Iberia/Georgia

502-504 The Kutrigurs pillage the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans)

502-506 Conflict between Byzantium and Persia, with no clear winner

504 Theodoric the Great annexes the formally Byzantine town of Sirmium (Illyria) to the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy

506 St. Benedict from Norcia founds the Benedictine monastic order in Italy. The Arab kingdom of Kindah occupies southwestern Mesopotamia

507 Chlovis I the Great routs the Visigoths at the battle of Vouillé, where the Visigoth king Alaric II falls on the battlefield, and extends the Frankish kingdom up to the Pyrenees; the Visigoths withdraw in Spain, where they set their new capital at Toledo. The Ostrogoth ruler Theodoric the Great (maternal grandfather of Amalaric, heir to the Visigothic throne) occupies Visigothic Provence.

508 The Lombards, expanding their power from Moravia, clash with the Heruli (now inhabiting Pannonia). The northern Wei of China defeat and kill Futu, Khan of the Ruanruan/Avars, at the battle of Pu-lei Lake. The Ripuarian Franks end absorbed into Chlovis’ domains; now the Frankish kingdom dominates from the Pyrenees to Franconia (central Germany)

510 The White Hun ruler Mihiragula wrests once and for all Punjab, Gujarat and Malwa from the Guptas. The Persians reoccupy and partially annex Caucasian Albania/Azerbaigian, overthrowing the local Arsacid rulers of Armenian origin; the Mihranids, related with the Sassanians of Ctesiphon, reign over the vassal pincipality of Girdyaman/Kuchen

510-520 Anti-Persian revolt of the Jews, persecuted by the Mazdakists; the rebellion, led by the Resh Galuta (Exilarch) Mar Zutra II, is eventually crushed in its stronghold at Makhoza

511 The death of Chlovis I the Great strats an era of fragmentation in the Frankish kingdom, which ends up divided between Chlovis’ sons Theodoric, Chlodomir, Childebert and Chlotarius; their four domains are centered on the local capitals of Paris, Orléans, Soissons, Reims. Death of King Arthur during a civil war; new unrest and fragmentation ensues in Britain

511-514 Theodoric the Great’s Ostrogoths subdue Noricum, Pannonia and southern Germany up to the Danube. The Rugii, won by Theodoric and threatened by the first Slavs from the East, start migrating towards the Upper Danube, taking the name of Boioari (Baiuvari, Bavarians). A second wave of Celtic migration to Galicia (this time mostly form Britannia and Brittany) weakens the Irish hegemony and extends Celtic control and culture to the Asturias.

515 Anti-Moophysite rebellion led by Vitalianus in Thrace, only barely quelled by Byzantine loyalist forces

516-518 First wave of Slav raids in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans)

518 The aged Illyrian military officer Justin (a Nicene Catholic) succeeds the Monophysite Anastasius on the Byzantine throne

519 Cerdic, a Celto-Saxon of mixed blood and former ally of king Arthur, founds the Kingdom of the Western Saxons (Wessex) and an important dynasty

ca. 520 The Angle warrior Wuffa founds the kingdom of East Anglia

520-521 The Ruanruan/Avars, troubled by internecine clanic struggles, are vassalized by the Wei of northern Cina

522 Theodoric the Great, driven to paranoia by old age and Byzantine intrigue behind the scenes, orders all the highest members of Roman Catholic nobility arrested as suspects of disloyalty in favor of Constantinople

523 Massacre of the Mazdakists in Sassanian Persia. The Byzantine emperor Justin issues edicts against Monophysism and Arianism. The last “ludi circenses” with wild beasts (“venationes”, “huntings”) are held in the Roman world

525 Theodoric the Great has his minister of Interiors, Severinus Boethius, killed in jail at Papia/Ticinum. During his time in jail Boethius wrote “De consolatione philosophiae”, the last great work of classical philosophy. Kaleb, Ethiopian emperor of Axum, invades and conquers Yemen with Byzantine backing; Himyar’s ruler Yusuf Ash'ar Masruq Dhu-Nuwas was a convert to Judaism, which news hadn’t been well received in Axum and even less in antisemitic Costantinople

525-533 Dhu Jadan keeps on fighting an 8 year-long guerrilla against the Ethiopians for Yemenite independence; during the struggle the island of Dioskoris/Soqotra, once held by Himyar, gains independence and becomes a century-long nest of piracy

526 Theodoric the Great sends Pope John I at Costantinople as a peace feeler, but, after John solemnly crowned Justin as emperor, on his return the unlucky Pope is arrested at Ravenna and starved to death in jail by the paranoid Theodoric, who in turn dies a few months later, leaving as his sole heir the 10 years old Athalaric under Amalaswentha’s regency. After Theodoric’s death the Ostrogoths wrest Provence from the Visigoths once and for all, defeating them at the battle of Arles. The Lombards migrate into Pannonia and subdue the local Heruli and Swabians.

527 Peter, son of Sabatius, succeeds his uncle Justine on the Byzantine throne, taking the name of Flavius Justianian. Mavortius is the last Roman consul appointed in the West by the Ostrogothic rulers of Italy; afterwards, the millenary institution is abandoned. The Byzantines, in alliance with the Taurian (*OTL Crimean) Huns, wrest Cherson/Sebastopol and the Taman peninsula from Taurogothia. Thrace is raided by the Ants (a Slavo-Iranic people, maybe composed by descendants of the Sarmatians). A new war between Byzantium and Persia is sparked by the Sassanian invasion of Armenia and Iberia/Georgia. Constantine Maurice founds the unified kingdom of Celtic Gallaecia in northwestern Spain, sealing a matrimonial alliance with the Swabian kingdom of Lusitania.

528 The Gupta Empire de facto collapses under the pressure of Mihiragula’s White Huns, whose raids desolate northwerstern India with great bloodshed. The Persians make Iberia/Georgia a vassal and install on the local throne their candidate, Parsman V. The rulers of the Korean kingdom of Silla (in the southeast of the country) convert to Buddhism. The Arab kingdm of Kindah splits into five parts and falls prey to civil war.

529 The Byzantine emperor Justinian forcibly dissolves the Philosophical Academy of Athens, last refuge of classical paganism. St. Benedict from Norcia founds the Abbey of Montecassino

529-530 With Ghassanid help the Byzantines ruthlessly crush the rebellious Samaritans of Palestine led by Julianus, who styled himself “King of Israel”

529-533 Justinian promotes the compilation of the “Corpus Iuris”, a collection of Roman laws which will become a pillar of the European legal systems

530 The Jutes chase the Celts from the isle of Wight. The Byzantine general Belisarius stops the Persians at the battle of Dara.

ca. 530 Slavic invasion and colonization of Moravia and inner Bohemia. Vulgar/Boulgaros reigns over the Onogurs: his name will apply to all European Huns, which will be commonly called Bulgars

531 The Persians defeat Belisarius’ Byzantine army at Callinicum (*OTL Raqqa, Syria). The new Sassanian Shah-in-Shah Khusraw I Anushirvan kills Mazdak and exterminates his followers, then strikes a peace deal with Byzantium, accepting a kind of condominium over Armenia. The Visigoth king Amalaric is attacked in Narbonne by his brother-in-law, the Frankish king Childebert II, whose sister he forced to convert to Arianism; Amalaric flees at Barcelona, where he is killed and replace on the Visigothic throne by Theudis

532 Constantinople erupts into the Nika (“Win!”) rebellion, unleashed by the circus factions (the “greens” and the “blues”) to support the pretender Hypatius; Justinian and Belisarius crush the rebels with horrendous massacres. The persecution of heretics in the Byzantine Empire quits after provoking notable turmoil. The Franks destroy the Burgundian kingdom at the battle of Autun. The Korean kingdom of Silla conquers Geumgwam (one of the Gaya/Kaya Confederation states)

533 Once defeated the local legitimist patriots, the Ethiopian Axumite general Abraha proclaims himself king of Southern Arabia (Himyar), while staying a loyal ally to Axum

533-534 Belisarius reconquers Carthage and (northwest) Africa for Byzantium by destroying the Vandal kingdom and deports the vanquished Vandals to Anatolia. The Vandal governor Goddas tries to create a kingdom for himself in Sardinia, but some months later a Byzantine expedition overthrows him

534 The northern Wei kingdom of China splits into an eastern and a western part. Theodatus usurps the Ostrogothic throne of Italy on the death of young Athalaric. The Franks defeat the Thuringians and conquer central Germany. First mention of Romancia (*OTL Graubünden/Grigioni, Switzerland), whose Romanized Rhaetic people stages a successful defence against the Alamanni

535 Amalaswentha, the former Queen Dowager of the Ostrogoths, is jailed and killed at the isola Bisentina on Bolsena lake by his cousin Theodatus, thus giving Byzantium an excuse to make war on the usurper. Belisarius lands in Sicily, easily conquering the island; the Byzantine governor of Illyria, Mundus, takes over Dalmatia from the Ostrogoths. In the meantime, the Franks occupy Ostrogothic Provence. Buddhism is adopted throughout all of Korea after two centuries of spreading

536 Mundus is defeated and killed by Ostrogothic forces on the Sava river. Belisarius lands in Bruttium/Calabria, then marches north, besieges and conquers Naples. The Ostrogoth general Witigis, hailed as king by his troops near Rome, kills Theodatus, then vainly tries to appease the Byzantines, but Belisarius advances and occupies the Urbs Aeterna. Anti-Byzantine rebellion of the Armenians.

537-538 For an entire year Witigis besieges in vain Belisarius in Rome, destroying the ancient aqueducts and desolating the Agro Romano (the Roman countryside). Pope Silverius (resented by empress Theodora for his theological stances) is deposed by Belisarius in favor of Vigilius. The Byzantines land fresh troops in the Picenum (Marche) and at Genoa, then rout the Ostrogoths at Papia/Ticinum and conquer Milan; Witigis is forced to raise the siege of Rome and withdraw to Ravenna

538-539 Frankish raids devastate Piedmont

538-556 Frankish, Burgundian and Alamannic raids and encroachments utterly desolate northwestern Italy

539 A horde of Ostrogoths and Burgundians led by Uraia, nephew of Witigis, besieges, takes and razes Milan to the ground, killing all of its male popluation. Belisarius conquers Papia/Ticinum and several other city north of the Po river, but he can’t reenter Milan; he then turns back to complete the conquest of central Italy. At ravenna Witigis not only surrenders, but offers the crown of Italy to Belisarius: the Byzantine general, loyal to Justinian, refuses. Just while Belisarius proves his loyalty, in Constantinople Justinian undoes his work by deciding to leave Italy north of the Po river to the Ostrogoths. The Franks, taking advantage of the complete collapse of Ostrogothic power, conquer the northern watershed of the Alps up to the boundaries of Pannonia

539-540 Kutrigurs and Slavs raid deep into Illyria

540 The Ostrogoths reenter Papia/Ticinum: Uraia is offered the crown, but he doesn’t accept, then the army elects Ildibad, who as his first act as king has Uraia slain. Taking advantage of Byzantine troubles in Italy and the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans), the Persians retake arms against Byzantium, taking and razing Antioch. The kingdom of Kindah (central Arabia) is overthrown and annexed by its northern neighbour, Hirah

ca. 540 The Saxon kingdom of Essex (East Saxe) is established. Huns, Bulgar Kutrigurs and Slavs cross the Danube and pillage the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans): the Slavs start settling the area, to whom they’ll give its new name. Vast religious insurrection led by Iabda in the Aurés region of Numidia; the Byzantines lose control over the interior of North Africa.

541 After the sequential assassinations of Ildibad and his successor Eraric, the Ostrogoths find a new great ruler with Baduila/Totila, Ildibad’s nephew. The Persians conquer Lazica (Colchis, northwestern Georgia). The Ruanruan/Avars defeat and vassalize the first Uighur khanate in Mongolia

542 The Byzantine general Artabazos cunningly occupies Verona; Totila reacts by first besieging and then pursuing the beleaguerd Byzantine up to Faenza, where he crushes Artabazos’ forces. The Ostrogoths thence proceed to cross the Apennines, rout agian the Byzantines at the Mugello, take Florence and reconquer (with the notable exception of Ravenna) all the area between the Po river and the Picenum (Marche), while in all of Italy slaves and peasants alike revolt against the Byzantinophile aristocracy

542-546 Devastating plague throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. With this last blow the classic urban civilization in the former Roman West collapses.

543 Totila’s Ostrogoths reconquer Naples. The Frank kings Childebert II and Chlotarius invade and sack Catalonia, but end up roued by the Visgoth ruler Theudis. The Chams attack Vietnam but are driven out by general Pham Tu

544 Failed Persian siege of Edessa; afterwards, a five-years truce between Persia and Byzantium is declared. Totila is forced to raise the siege of Otranto and turn back to central Italy when Belisarius comes back in Ravenna. Justinian provokes the religious schism of the Three Chapters by anathematizing the works of three Syrian Fathers of the Church (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus, Ibas); the Patriarchate of Aquileia will lead the reaction against Justinian’s decision, taken to appease the Monophysites, who are majority in Syria and Egypt. Pope Vigilius abandons Rome for Sicily. Vietnam frees itself from Chinese domination under the Li dynasty

546 Totila conquers Ascoli, Fermo and Spoleto and occupies Rome. The Byzantines reconquer Bologna, then Belisarius heads south but the Ostrogoths rout his army at Capua (Campania)

547 The Angles, taking advantage of the chronic civil wars amongst the Brythons, found the kingdom of Bernicia in Northumbria. Belisarius eventually manages to reenter Rome and defeats Totila at Tivoli, but this success has no effect. In a matter of weeks the Ostrogoth ruler is able to reconquer and half-destroy Rome, whose inhabitants are temporarily moved out leaving the Urbs Aeterna void as a dead shell. Totila declares all remaining slaves of Italy free. In the meantime Pope Vigilius goes to Costantinople to discuss the Three Chapters schism, who finds the harshest resstance in the West

547-548 Slavic hordes overrun Illyria to the Adriatic Sea; the barbarians destroy Epidamnos/Dyrrachion

548 The Byzantine situation in Italy is awful: they still keep only Liguria, Ravenna, Otranto and Crotone and are besieged in Rome and Perugia. Belisarius is embittered by Justinian’s suspicions and by the resultant lack of reinforcements. So, when news reach him that his wife has died in Constantinople and Justinian wants to recall him, Belisarius accepts Totila’s startling offer of alliance and combines his forces with his former enemy’s Ostrogoth army. Belisarius is hailed as king of Italy and adopts Totila as his son and heir, viceroy and sole commander of the Ostrogoths. In Constantinople Pope Vigilius is convinced/coerced into ratifying the condemnation of the Three Chapters. The Persians subdue Armenia. Byzantium is forced to come to terms with the Numidian Berbers, enforcing a fragile control over Ifrigia/Punia (*OTL Tunisia) in exchange for practical independence of local Berbers and Zenetes in the interior between Septem/Sefta (*OTL Ceuta), just occupied by Spain’s Visigoths, and Ippona/Bona. Romancia (*OTL Graubünden, Switzerland) recognizes Frankish supremacy but preserves its independence

549 Justinian keeps Pope Vigilius in Costantinople and allies with the Franks against Totila and Belisarius; his generals work hard to quell several military insurrections in favor of Belisarius, raging from Illyria to Assyria. A loyalist Byzantine army under general Conon is routed by Totila at Avellino (Campania), while Belisarius with a motley collection of Hunno-Bulgarian and Lombard mercenaries stops the Frankish invasion of Italy at Lomello and Sirmione (Lombardy). The Korean kingdom of Silla subdues another member state of the Kaya/Gaya Confederation, Karak

550 The eastern Wei of China change their dynastical name becoming the northern Qi dynasty. Totila reconquers Corsica and Sardinia from the beleaguered Byzantines, while Belisarius occupies Sicily and Dalmatia. Byzantine Africa rises in rebellion in favor of Belisarius; in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans) the Belisarist rebels end up crushed by Zabergan Khan’s Kutrigurs, cunningly called for help by Justinian.

ca. 550 The Bavarians, coming from Bohemia, establish the Duchy of Bavaria north of the central Alps. The Gurjaras, nomads from Central Asia, found the royal dynasty of Mandor in Rajputana (India). The Chalukya kingdom of Badami/Vatapi is established. Vallabhi (Gujarat) is destroyed by Omani Arab raiders. The Alans of northern Caucasus create a strong kingdom, tightly bound to Byzantium, under their king Sarosius. Bhavavarman I, heir to the throne of the Funan Empire in Indochina, inherits through dynastical marriage the crown of the Mon-Khmer kingdom of Chenla (Laos); in a matter of years, by will of the new ruler, this will become the real powerhouse. Funan will quickly decay, while in the nearby Lopburi region of central Siam the Mon kingdom of Dvaravati arises. Seceding from the crumbling White Hun/Hephtalite empire the Hindu Zabulistan kingdom arises in Afghanistan, with its capital in Kabul. Western Ukraine hosts the formation of the Slavic Drevlian tribe. Beowulf, ruler of the Geats of Götland (southwestern Sweden), inspires with his deeds the later Anglo-Saxon poem of the 8th-9th century

551 The Franks finally subdue the Thuringians. Byzantine monks coming back from a voyage to China smuggle silkworms in Europe. Romancia (the soutwestern part of former Roman Rhaetia) overthrows local Frankish suzerainty with help from Totila. Additional troops from Byzantine Africa and Moorish/Berber mercenaries join Belisarius and Totila’s army in Italy

551-552 The Ruanruans, overlords of Mongolia, are routed by Bumin’s Tu-jües (Turks) di Bumin and start migrating westwards, where together with other nomads absorbed along their way west will form the Avar power. Bumin, paramount ruler of the Turks, takes the title of Khagan founding the first Turkic empire in Mongolia

552 Belisarius and Totila, reinforced by Hunnic and Slavic forces, trounce at Ostra (Marche) Narses’ Byzantines and Lombards, who had come from recentrly reconquered Dalmatia; afterwards they manage to starve Ravenna into surrender. Buddhism is introduced in Japan. The Wessex Saxons wrest Salisbury from the Brythons

552-554 The Sabirs of Caucasia reject their old alliance with Persia in favor of Byzantium and invade Caucasian Albania/Azerbaigian, but their attack ends in defeat

553-567 The Turkic Gök Turkiut Empire splits into an eastern (and a western confederation; it stretches from Manchuria to Central Asia

554 Massive Frankish and Alamannic invasion of northern Italy; Verona is taken and destroyed. A new loyalist Byzantine army, after retaking Carthage and Sicily, is crushed at the Vesuvio near Naples. The Western Gökturks conquer Samarkand from the Wite Huns/Hephtalites

554-558 The Sabirs gain a brief period of ascendancy over the Pontic steppes with Western Gökturk support, then are overwhelmed by the Avar break-in and come back to Caucasia/Daghestan

555 The Eastern Gökturks annihilate the remnants of Ruanruan power in Mongolia and submit the Khitans and the Kirghizes. Pope Vigilius dies in Constantinople; after eleven years of exile of the Holy See, in a desolate and almost completely abandoned Rome Liberius II, supported by Totila and Belisarius, is appointed as the new Pope and excommunicates the Church of Constantinople over the Three Chapters affair.

555-560 Aquitaine goes as appannage to another scion of the ever-quarrelling Merovingians, Chramm, before reverting to the Frankish crown.

556 Belisarius and Totila trounce the Alamanni at Monza (Lombardy) and the Franks at Acqui (Piedmont). The western Wei of northern China change their dynastical title into “northern Zhou”. In Constantinople Justianian appoints Pelagius as anti-Tricapitoline antipope; the Catholic Church is in chaos because of the two rival popes in Rome and Constantinople and the Three Chapters schism, not to mention the Arian question still extant in Ostrogothic Italy and Visigothic Spain. A loyalist Byzantine army coming from Carthage is crushed by the pro-Belisarian African rebels at Siliana

557 The Chen replace the Liang dynasty on the southern Chinese throne at Nanking. Augustine, a North African, succeeds Liberius II as Peter’s sucessor in Rome. The Persians conquer Iberia/Georgia

559 The Avar invasion in the Ukrainian steppes pushes forward Zabergan Khan’s Kutrigurs and Slavs, who plunge on the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans) pillaging and destroying everything in sight. When news of the horde’s misdeeds reaches Italy, Belisarius marches south from Aquileia across Dalmatia, where he is hailed as a savior; then he enters the Sklavinian mountains and suddenly appears behind the Slavo-Kutrigurs vainly besieging Constantinople. The subsequent battle, coupled with a sortie of the Constantinopolitan garrison, sees the total extermination of Zabergan Khan’s horde; Belisarius enters Constantinople in triumph as is hailed as emperor (though many in the city still remember his role in crushing the Nika revolt) while Justinian retires to monastic life on the island of Proti; in Italy Totila remains the sole ruler of the Ostrogothic kingdom. The Anglian kingdom of Deira arises south of Eburacum/Ebrauc/York

560 Belisarius deposes the anti-Pope Pelagius, thus ending – for the moment being – the major quarrels about the Three Chapters affaire

560-561 Chlotarius reunifies for a while the Frankish kingdom upon Chramm’s death, then in turn quickly dies. The Frankish possessions are anew divided (according to the Salian customs) between Sigebert I, who in Reims founds the kingdom of Austrasia (north-eastern “Francia”), Gontran (Burgundy, with capital in Orléans), Chilperic I (the North, with his capital in Soissons) and Caribert (Paris and the southwest); needless to say, the four royal brothers hate each other passionately

561 After conquering Taurogotia (Taurida [*OTL Crimea]) and subduing the Hunno-Bulgars from the Caspian Sea to the Carpathians, the Avars create a powerful empire under their Khagan Bayan, bringing in Europa the stirrup, formerly unknown of. The Byzantines expel the Persians from Lazica (nortwestern Georgia); afterwards a 50-years peace is brokered between Byzantium and Persia. The Persian cush a renewed Sabir invasion across the Caucasus. Belisarius recognizes Totila as the legitimate ruler of Italy (“patrikios”) ruling from Ravenna in exchange for control over Sicily and Sardinia; Byzantine public opinion prevents him from appointing the Arian and barbarian Totila as Western Roman Emperor and heir as he desired, having no sons; the stubborn Ostrogoths in turn prevent Totila from embracing Nicene Catholicism

562 A Monophysite insurrection in Syria and Egypt and urban turmoil in Constantinople itself on both religious (the Three Chapters) and political (the attempt to install Totila as heir) forces Belisarius to appoint as his heir and co-emperor Justin (II), Justinian’s nephew and anti-Tricapitoline candidate for the throne. The former emperor actually kept scheming from his monastic retirement, where he wrote notable works of literature and thelogy in both Latin and Greek. The Korean kingdom of Silla finally crushes the Kaya/Gaya Confederation by conquering Tae, its last stronghold; this marks the end of Japanese influence in Korea, of which Kaya/Gaya was expression. Totila routs a Bavarian invasion at Salorno (Tyrol) and chases the invaders beyond the Brenner Pass. The Mayan city-state of Calakmul, with help from her ally Caracol/Oxuitza, defeats and vassalizes Mutul/Tikal, wresting from her hegemony over the region between Yucatàn and Guatemala

563 The first diplomatic contacts are established between Byzantium and the Western Gökturk empire. Istemi Khan’s Western Gökturks and the Sassanian Persians trounce the White Huns at the battle of Bokhara. Justinian dies as a simple monk at Proti island; he’ll be later sanctified by the Orthodox Church.

565 Fall of the White Huns’ empire after their annihilation in the battle of Neseph at the hands of the Western Gökturks, who proceed to conquer most of Afghanistan

ca. 565 Brude mac Malcom, king of the northern Picts, receives baptism from the Irish preacher St. Columba and defeats heavily the raiding Scots. Romancia (*centered on OTL Graubünden, Switzerland) occupies Valtellina (the extreme north of Lombardy)

566 Belisarius dies in Constantinople (allegedly poisoned); Justin II succeds on the imperial throne restoring the Justinians

566-571 The Western Gökturks led by their Yaghbu (ruler) Istemi Khan gain suzerainty over the Pontic steppes and the region north of the Caucasus; the Utrigurs (eastern Hunno-Bulgars) are subdued by the Onogurs, who in turn had become Avar vassals. Justin II’s intrigues with Avars, Lombards and Franks to overthrow Totila and the Ostrogoths freezes Ostrogoth-Byzantine relations

567 Aiding the Avar onslaught through the Carpathians, Alboin’s Lombards destroy the Gepid kingdom in Transylvania; from the skull of the Gepid ruler Cunimond Alboin makes a cup in which he compels Cunimond’s daughter Rosamunda, forcibly taken as his “war bride”, to drink wine (“Drink, Rosamunda, in your father’s skull!”). Caribert of Paris dies, and his domains are happily carved up amongst his brothers; Chilperic’s domain, centered in Soissons and with Paris now included, becomes known as Neustria

568 The Avars, bribed by the Byzantines, instead of crossing the Carpathians invade scarcely-inhabited Poland and settle down there (at least for the moment), while the Lombards are acknowledged as rulers of Pannonia

570 Totila, upset at discovering Justin’II treacherous plans by intercepting his letters to the Frankish kings, occupies Sardinia, Sicily pand Dalmatia provoking a second Greco-Gothic conflict

ca. 570 The Onogur Bulgars expel the Byzantines from the Taman peninsula on the Black Sea. Byzantium annexes Lazica (NW Georgia) undermining Persian power over Iberia/Georgia.

571 The Lombards, called for help by the ailing Justin II, soundly defat the Ostrogoths led by Widin at Salona (Dalmatia); a Byzantine force from Carthage retakes Sicily. The Saxons wrench the poor remains of Londinium (London) from the Brythonic Celts. Totila moves his capital from Ravenna to the less exposed Florence

572 In Constantinople Justin II, who shows signs of schizophrenia, is de facto replaced by a regency under empress Sophia and general Tiberius Constantine. The Lombard king Alboin is murdered at Celeia/Celje by his wife Rosamunda, who tries to have his lover Elmichi enthroned as the new king, but both are killed and the Lombard army elects Cleph as king. The Franks try an invasion of Italy from the north in alliance with the Alamanni and the Bavarians, but are bottled in the Trentino and forced to withdraw; a Byzantine army crawls up the “boot” of Italy winning at Salerno and conquers Naples. A new Byzantine-Persian war erupts over the renewed enforcing of conversion to Mazdeism on the Armenians

573 The Franks invade Piedmont and raze Turin and Eporedia/Ivrea to the ground. The Byzantine army, now led By Tiberius Constantine, mauls the Ostrogoth rearguard at Cassino, then enters Rome unopposed, deposes Pope Augustine and replaces him with John III, the anti-Tricapitoline candidate; meantime the Byzantine fleet starves Ravenna into surrender. The beleaguered Totila, after calling Slavs and Avars for help, throws the full weight of the Ostrogothic army against the Lombards in the battle of Cividale; but when victory seems secured, a stray arrow kills Totila and the tide of the battle turns, with the Lombards going berserk over the battlefield and slaying everyone in sight, including the teenage Theodoric (II) Belisarius, Totila’s only male heir. After the battle, the Lombards (partly Arian, partly still heathen) invade all of Veneto settling their capital at Opitergium/Oderzo; the Roman populations flee to the coastal lagoons, where a Byzantine duchy is created, the forerunner of Venice; even the Patriarch of Aquileia Paulinus I takes refuge in the island of Grado (Friuli). Cleph marries Amalaswentha, Totila’s daughter. The Avar migrate through the Tatras into the Pannonian basin, which becomes their new homeland an the center of a powerful Avaro-Slavic kingdom.

574 The Lombards led by Cleph crush the Burgundian Franks and the Alamanni at the battle of Lodi Vecchia (Lombardy), entering Milan and Papia/Ticinum; Honoratus, bishop of Milan, flees in terror in Byzantine-held Genoa. Meantime the Byzantine army terminates the last Ostrogothic resistance led by the aged Teia, killed in battle at Mons Lunae (Tuscany)

575 The Byzantines led by Maurice gain a brilliant victory over the Persians at Melitene (*OTL Malatya) (Cappadocia); Iberia/Georgia overthrows Sassanian yoke under Guaram I/Gurgen III. In Rome, a ghost city, Benedict I succeeds John III as Pope after a long and disputed election. Byzantium grants the Lombards the lands from the Po to the Danube and the Sava rivers (but Bavarians and Slavs think differently as for their part), except for the Venetic lagoons

ca. 575 Pushed ahead by the Avar onslaught, the Slovenians settle Carniola. The Angles conquer Eburacum/Ebrauc, renaming it York. The Lazi (Abasgians/Abkhazians) of NW Iberia/Georgia, in the service of Byzantium, defeat on the Black Sea coast the Onogurs, which, deflected towards the interior, settle around the Terek river. Christianization of Nubia/Sudan, which will follow the Monophysite Coptic Church of Egypt. The remnants of the Ostrogoths migrate through the Alps to Noricum/Austria fleeing Lombard domination and founds there a new fragile kingdom under a Hilderic

575-579 Several Lombard attempts to cross the Western Alps are thwarted by the Franks, who consolidate their hold over the Aosta valley. Groups of Bulgars, Gepids, and even Saxons fleeing the Avar scourge filter through Italy’s unguarded northeastern border and pour into the Padan plain, intermingling with the Lombards. The Kutrigurs in Moldavia and Wallachia are subdued by the Avars, whilst their cousins in the Ukrain submit to the Onogurs

ca. 575-594 The tribal chieftain Hospiton leads his people’s resistamce against the Byzantines in Sardinian Barbagia, still a heathen land, then, accepting defeat, converts to Catholic christianity and allows missionaries sent by Pope Gregory the Great to preach in the area.

576 The Khazars, most loyal allies of the Western Western Gökturks, establish a semiautonomous khanate of theirs on the lower Volga river

577 In Northern China the northern Qi state (the eastern kingdom) is conquered by the northern Zhou (the western one), thus reunifying the former Toba/Tabgach Wei empire. The Western Gökturks invade Taurida (*OTL Crimea)

577-578 A Slavic horde led by Davrit invades the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans) up to Greece before being crushed by the Avars on their way back. A Bavarian invasion of Tyrol is crushed by the Lombard duke of Trento, Evin

578-582 Tiberius II Constantine reigns in Constantinople, adopting the brilliant general Maurice as heir

579 The Byzantines plot the assassination of the Lombard king Cleph and cross the Po river to complete their reconquest of Italy, but Cleph’s son Authari (not a grandson of Totila, he was born from a previous marriage) quickly gains recognition as king by Lombard dukes and exacts terrible revenge by besieging and razing Mantua to the ground; the Byzantine army is routed at Cremona at withdraws to Ravenna while the Lombards occupy most of Emilia

580 The Lombards invade and conquer Tuscany, but can’t advance further; the Byzantines stop them in Liguria and on the Rome-Ravenna rout. Authari sets the Lombard capital at Pavia (the fomer Papia/Ticinum). King Maurice I unifies southern Wales. The eastern region of Khakheti secedes from the kingdom of Iberia/Georgia

ca. 580 Götland (SW Sweden) splits in a western and an eastern kingdom: the local Geats (Goths) are weakened while the Swedes from north-east and the Danes south emerge as growing powers

581 The Byzantine general (and adopted heir to the trone) Maurice newly defeats the Persians at Constantia (Armenia). The Chinese general Yang Jian takes power in the northern Zhou capital at Chang’an/Xian and founds the Sui dynasty

581-584 The Avars crush the weak Ostrogothic kingdom in Noricum/Austria and deport the Ostrogoths as slaves, deleting them from history

582 Upon Tiberius II Constantine’s death, Maurice becomes emperor of Byzantium. The Avars oust the Byzantines from Pannonia, taking Singidunum and Sirmium. Massive Slavic invasion of the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans), which are almost completely emptied of the originary peoples and Slavicized; the Slavs sack Athens, a pale shadow of its former glory. The Dal Riada Scots from Ireland conquer the Isle of Man. Final separation of the Western and Eastern Gökturk empires.

583 The Western Gökturks invade Bactria but the Persian stem them at Herat. A Byzantine counteroffensive in the Padan Plain ends ina solemn defeat at the battle of the Scoltenna (Panaro) river.

584-604 Direct Byzantine occupation of the Syrian Arab vassal kingdom of Ghassan, that from his capital, Damascus, supported Monophyisitism against Costantinople’s will.

585 Authari’s Lombards overrun Byzantine Liguria razing Genoa, Albingaunum/Albenga, Vada Sabatia/Vado Ligure, Lunae/Luni.

586 Leovigildus, king of the Spanish Visigoths, unifies the Iberian peninsula by conquering the Swabian kingdom of Lusitania and vassalizing the Galician Celts, whose king Alanus Maurician (Alan ap Meurig) is captured at the battle of the Narcea. The Bretons repel the Neustrian i Franks in the battle of Dinan. The Slavs besiege Thessalonica. Emperor Maurice reacts to Lombard encroachments in Italy by crownng his son Belisarius emperor of the West in Rome as Belisarius II, 110 years after Romulus Augustus’ deposition at the hands of Odovacar; Maurice then proceeds to put Byzantine West under the two Exarchates of Ravenna and Carthage

587 The Slavs colonize inner Greece, including the Peloponnesus/Morea. The Soga clan becomes paramount in Japan, supporting the spreading of Buddhism in the country. The Lombards, with enthusiastic Avaro-Slavic support, desolate Byzantine Histria as a revenge for the arrest of the Patriarch of Aquileia, Severus, by the Exarch of Ravenna Smaragdus, on charges of not adhering to the official condemnation of the Three Chapters

588 The Burgundian Franks invade Piedmont but are routed at Alba, their only gain being some land in the Maritime Alps; a Byzantine counterinvasion of Tuscany fails at Arezzo

589 China is reunified by Yang Jian, founder of the Sui empire, who conquers Nanking liquidating the southern Chen kingdom. The Persian commander Bahram defeats Western Gökturks, Khazars and Onogur-Bulgars in the Caucasus, then is stemmed by the Byzantines on the Araks river; afterwards he rebels and deposes Hormizd IV replacing him with Hormizd’s son Khusraw II Parviz. The Byzantine army gains another victory over the Persians at Nisibis (Assyria). Arab trines invade lower Mesopotamia. The Lombards raid deep into the whereabouts of Rome. A matrimonial alliance is sealed between Lombards and Bavarians with the wedding of king Authari with Theodolinda, Catholic daughter of the Bavarian duke, Garibald; it has an anti-Frankish meaning. With the Council of Toledo the Visigoths of Spain renounce Arianism and convert to Nicene Catholicism

590 Belisarius II’s Western Byzantines retake Padua and Mutina/Modena from the Lombards, who in turn plunder the poor remains of once thriving Aquileia. Agilulf succeeds Authari on the Lombard throne by marrying her widow Theodolinda, and moves the Lombard capital from Pavia to Modicia/Monza. A Byzantine fleet conquers the seaports of Taurida (*OTL Crimea), whereas the interior of the peninsula is left to the Onoguro-Bulgars

590-591 Short usurpation by Bahram VI in Persia; ater Maurice's great victory over Bahram at Sebastea/Sivas (Armenia) Khusraw II is reinstalled in power with support from Byzantium, and thanks for help by ceding in a peace treaty Armenia and suzerainty over Iberia/Georgia; in the latter the pro-Byzantine Stephen I ascends the throne

590-604 St.Gregory I the Great is Pope in Rome: a distinguished and learned defeder of Catholicism, scion of the noble Anicia gens

591 The Slovenians invade Carantania/Carinthia

592 The Sui Chinese try to subdue the noprthern Korean kingdom of Koguryo but end up repulsed

592-595 Upon the death of its Merovingian Frankish ruler Gontran, Burgundy is briefly attached to Austrasia and then given as appanage to Theodoric I of the Austrasian line

593-602 The Byzantine emperor Maurice leads a great campaign in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans) against Avars and Slavs

594 King Agilulf of the Lombards ravages Byzantine Pentapolis (Romagna and Marche), retakes and destroys Mutina/Modena and raids deep into central Italy, conquering Spoleto where a new Lombard Duchy is established; the Western Byzantines succesfully defend Perugia and the Rome-Ravenna route

595 The Angles of Bernicia overthrow the Celtic petty kingdoms in the Pennines

ca. 595 Macedonian Slavs begin piracy in the Aegean Sea and plunder Thasos and Samotrakia; they will go on marauding by sea up to the middle 9th century. A sizable part of the European Greek populations takes refuge in the Aegean island

596 The Lombards defeat Belisarius II’s Western Byzantines at the battle of Todi (Umbria) and defend the new Dchy of Spoleto

597 Augustine Christianizes the kingdom of Kent (England). The Bernician Angles rout at Catreath the Celts of Goutodin (Votadini from Lothian) and absorb the other Angle kingdom of Deira. Agilulf briefly besieges Rome but is defeated by Belisarius II at Blera (Lazio) and, after a meeting with Pope Gregory the Great, renounces any assault on Rome (also thanks to pressure from his Catholic wife Theodolinda, no doubt). Great Berber rebellion in Western Byzantine Africa (known as Ifrigia); Carthage is under siege.

599 The Slovenians plunder Histria, but are eventually expelled by Byzantine forces. The Sui Chinese rout the Eastern Gökturks in the Ordos region, extorting tribute from them. The Mayan kindom of Calakmul heavily defeats B’aakal/Palenque, making it a vassal state. The Persians invade Yemen, destroy Ma’rib and the kingdom of Himyar; the Ethiopians are ousted from Yemen

6th cent. The Irish spread Catholicism in the West and among the barbarians. The Frisians impose themselves as trade masters in the North Sea. Nadir of the “dark ages” in Europe, with a total collapse of the ancient urban civilization. The post-Hephtalite Hunnish horde of the Nezaks dominates most of Afghanistan, ravaging from Seistan (eastern Persia) to the north of India. Apogee of the Classic era of Mayan civilization, centered in the Petén region (Guatemala)

ca. 600 The Polynesians settle in Tahiti and Hawaii. The Slovenians, still heathen, settle down in Carantania/Carinthia and establish a Duchy of their own, occupying also Styria. The zero is “invented” by Indian mathematicians; the Mayans too grasp the concept. The first Chera kingdom in Kerala (SW India) arrives to an end. Ememrging of a “roman” (Catholic) and a “barbarian” (Arian) parties in the Lombard kingdom. Hephtalite/White Hun power in northern India comes to an end. The Avars enforce their ascendancy over the Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. Romancia Romancia (*centered on OTL Graubünden, Switzerland) proclaims herself a Duchy, paying lip service to the Western Byzantine empire. The Nubian kingdom of Nobadia/Faras is absorbed by its southern neighbour, Dongola; the strong kingdom of Mukurra is thus born, while, further south, another Nubian kingdom arises, Soba/Alwa. The Onoguro-Bulgars free themselves from the patronage of the Avars, now pressed by Maurice’s campaigns, and behave friendly towards the Western Gökturks.