/year

The 470s

130 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 5th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

470 CE14 entries

  • Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, introduces the Rogation days (a three days' procession involving prayer to invoke God's mercy).
  • The church of Santo Stefano Rotondo at Rome is consecrated (approximate date).
  • Revolt of Euric: Roman forces under Paulus and Childeric I stop the Aquitanian Goths at Bourges and briefly recaptured Tours in 470. All the loot they had stolen fell into the hands of Paul.

471 CE12 entries

  • Revolt of Euric: The Aquitanian Goths under Euric defeat a Roman army that was sent by Emperor Anthemius near Arles and conquer a large part of the Provence (Southern Gaul). The city of Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne is besieged.
  • Basiliscus, brother-in-law of Emperor Leo I, returns from exile (see 468) and leads an imperial conspiracy against Aspar (magister militum), helping in his murder at Constantinople.
  • Northern Wei ruler Xianwen officially goes into retirement. His son, Xiao Wen Di, aged 4, becomes the new emperor, initially under the regency of Emperor Xianwen's stepmother Empress Dowager Feng.

472 CE10 entries

  • July 11 – Anthemius, besieged in the part of Rome he controls until his troops are defeated, is caught while fleeing the city disguised as a supplicant in the Old St. Peter's Basilica (or at the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere), and later beheaded by Gundobad or Ricimer. Ricimer proclaims Olybrius emperor. Ricimer's nephew, the Burgundian general Gundobad, assumes command of the Western army and holds de facto power in the Empire.
  • November 2 – Olybrius dies of dropsy. During his four months' rule he has been mainly interested in religion.
  • Mount Vesuvius erupts. During the volcanic eruption the whole of southern Europe is blanketed by ash.

473 CE10 entries

  • March 3 – Gundobad (nephew of Ricimer) nominates Glycerius as emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Emperor Leo I refuses to recognize him, and chooses Julius Nepos as candidate to the Western throne.
  • October 25 – Leo I grants his grandson Leo II, age 6, the title of Caesar (approximate date).
  • The Ostrogoths leave Pannonia, and migrate to Macedonia and Moesia, from whence they ravage the Balkans.

474 CE13 entries

  • January 18 – Emperor Leo I dies of dysentery at Constantinople, after a 17-year reign. He is succeeded by his 7-year-old grandson Leo II, who briefly becomes ruler of the Byzantine Empire.
  • June 24 – Julius Nepos arrives at Portus, and marches on Ravenna. He forces Glycerius to abdicate the throne, and proclaims himself emperor of the Western Roman Empire.
  • A statue of a Standing Buddha from Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, (during the Gupta period) is made. It is now kept at the Sarnath Museum in India (source states the creation date as 1st to 2nd century BCE).

475 CE16 entries

  • April 9 – Basiliscus issues a circular letter (Enkyklikon) to the bishops of his empire, promoting the Miaphysite christological position. These religious views will make him highly unpopular.
  • August 28 – Magister Militum Orestes takes control of the government in Ravenna, and forces Julius Nepos to flee to Dalmatia.
  • October 31 – Romulus Augustus is installed as emperor by his father Orestes, who becomes regent in effect of the Western Roman Empire. Augustus will ultimately rule for 10 months, as the last Western Emperor.

476 CE19 entries

  • August 28 – Orestes is arrested by Odoacer near Piacenza, and swiftly executed.
  • August – Basiliscus, Roman usurper, is deposed and Zeno is restored as emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. With the support of his adviser Illus, he besieges Constantinople, but the Senate opens the gates, allowing him to resume the throne. Basiliscus flees to sanctuary in a church, but surrenders himself and his family after extracting a solemn promise from Zeno not to shed their blood. Basiliscus is sent to a fortress in Cappadocia, where he later dies from starvation.
  • September 4 – Romulus Augustulus, Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed by Odoacer at Ravenna. Odoacer spares the boy's life and gives him a pension of 6,000 solidi, but exiles him to the "Castellum Lucullanum" (Castel dell'Ovo), on the island of Megaride in the Gulf of Naples. This event will later be romanticized in Western literature and history as the Fall of Western Rome, and is traditionally used by historians to mark the beginning of the European Middle Ages.

477 CE13 entries

  • January 25 – Genseric, ruler of the Vandal Kingdom, dies a natural death at Carthage, and is succeeded by his eldest son Huneric. He maintains control over the islands in the western Mediterranean Sea with his Vandal fleet, and rescinds his father's policy of persecuting the Roman Catholics in Africa.
  • Aelle, first king of the South Saxons, lands on the Sussex coast of England with his three sons near Cymenshore, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The Britons engage him upon landing, but his superior force besieges them at Pevensey and drives them into the wood called Andredes leage. Over the next nine years, Saxon coastal holdings are gradually expanded.
  • Liu Zhun, age 10, becomes Emperor Shun of the Liu Song dynasty after his brother Houfei is assassinated by general Xiao Daocheng. He installs Shun as puppet ruler and sets himself up as regent. Xiao receives near-imperial powers, establishes Buddhism as the state religion and sets up the "Three Leaders" system, under which native hamlet, village and district officers are responsible for taxation and conscription.

478 CE9 entries

  • Chinese chronicles record a memorial sent by the "King of Japan" (possibly Yūryaku), who describes himself as "Supreme Director of Military Affairs in Japan and Korea" to the Court of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Chinese emperor responds by confirming the Japanese dynasty in those titles. This is the earliest verifiable date in Japanese history.
  • Verina, mother-in-law of Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno, attempts to kill Isaurian general Illus for turning against her brother Basiliscus. A major revolt is led by her son-in-law Marcian and the Ostrogoth warlord Theodoric Strabo, but Illus again proves his loyalty to Zeno by quashing the revolt in 479.
  • The first Shinto shrines are built in Japan.

479 CE14 entries

  • As Lý Trường Nhân, Jiaozhou's governor, died in final days of the Liu Song dynasty, Lý Thúc Hiến requested the Liu Song to be appointed as Trường Nhân's successor. The Liu Song rejected Thúc Hiến's request and appointed Thẩm Hoán, the governor of Nanhai Commandery, as the new governor of Jiaozhou, while Thúc Hiến was assigned to govern Vũ Bình and Tân Xương. However, with strong support from the local population, Thúc Hiến deployed troops throughout the region, preventing Thẩm Hoán from assuming office in Jiaozhou. As a result, Thẩm Hoán was forced to remain in Uất Lâm during the turbulent final days of the Liu Song dynasty, where he eventually died.
  • Summer – The Liu Song dynasty ends and the Southern Qi dynasty begins in southern China. Emperor Shun Di is forced to abandon the throne and Qi Gao Di becomes the first ruler of Southern Qi. Later former Emperor Shun and empress Wang Zhenfeng are killed by the imperial guard, near the vicinity of the capital Jiankang.
  • Ambrosius Aurelianus, war leader of the Romano-British, is proclaimed king of the Britons (according to Historia Regum Britanniae). He rules probably in the south of Britain, and continues the war against the Anglo-Saxons.