/year

The 490s

115 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.

490 CE16 entries

  • August 11 – Battle of the Adda River: Theodoric and his ally Alaric II defeat the forces of Odoacer, on the Adda River, near Milan.
  • Empress Feng of the Chinese Northern Wei Dynasty dies. She is buried with magnificent honors, in the Wenming Tomb.
  • Theodoric and his Ostrogoths lay siege to Ravenna. The cities of Cesena and Rimini retain their allegiance to Odoacer.

491 CE10 entries

  • April 9 – Emperor Zeno, age 66, dies of dysentery (or of epilepsy) after a 17-year reign. He has no sons to succeed him and Anastasius, palace official (silentiarius) and favoured friend of empress Ariadne, is elevated to the throne.
  • May 20 – Anastasius I marries Ariadne shortly after his accession. His reign is disturbed by religious distractions and a civil war started by Longinus, brother of late emperor Zeno.
  • Aelle of Sussex besieges and conquers the fortified town Anderitum in southern Britain. He massacres the population, apparently sub-Roman Brythons (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).

492 CE5 entries

  • March 1 – Pope Felix III dies after a 9-year reign in which he has excommunicated Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople, thus dividing the Western Church and Eastern Church (Acacian schism). He is succeeded by Gelasius I as the 49th pope.
  • King Theoderic the Great conquers Rimini, and brings his Ostrogoth fleet to blockade the harbours 6 miles from the capital of Ravenna. Important provisions, food and supplies are cut off, and the inhabitants are starved to death.
  • Battle of Cotyaeum: The Isaurian rebels are defeated by the Eastern Roman army, under John the Scythian and John the Hunchback (subordinate commanders include the future Justin I). They retreat to their mountain fortresses, and continue guerrilla warfare against the Roman forces until 497.

493 CE18 entries

  • March – Battle for the Body of St. Patrick: The Uí Néill Dynasty fights over the body of Saint Patrick with the Airgialla Kingdom (according to the Annals of the Four Masters).
  • Onoulphus, brother of Odoacer, is killed during the siege of Ravenna by archers while seeking refuge in a church.
  • Emperor Xiao Wen Di starts adopting a sinicization policy as well as various reforms. He marries Feng Qing, who becomes empress of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

494 CE8 entries

  • Emperor Xiao Wen Di moves the capital of Northern Wei from Datong to Luoyang. He makes Chinese the official language of his court, and orders his nobility to adopt Chinese names.
  • The Decretum Gelasianum is attributed.
  • Gelasius I delineates the relationship between church and state (Doctrine of the two swords, formulated in his letter Famuli vestrae pietatis to the East Roman Emperor Anastasius I.)

495 CE10 entries

  • Cerdic of Wessex and his son, Cynric, land somewhere on the south coast, probably near the Hampshire-Dorset border. Their followers establish the beginnings of the Kingdom of Wessex.
  • Pope Gelasius I gains support from Italian bishops, in his assertion that the spiritual power of the papacy is superior to the emperor's temporal authority. Like his predecessors, the pope opposes the Byzantine emperor Anastasius I's efforts to establish Miaphysite doctrine.
  • Emperor Xiao Wen Di of Northern Wei builds the Shaolin Monastery in Henan for the monk Batuo (for alternate founding date see 477 or 497).

496 CE16 entries

  • November 21 – Gelasius I dies after a 4-year reign, and is succeeded by the Rome-born Anastasius II as the 50th pope.
  • December 25 – Clovis I is baptized into the Catholic faith at Rheims, by Saint Remigius. The conversion strengthens the bonds between his Gallo-Roman subjects, led by their Catholic bishops.
  • Thrasamund succeeds his brother Gunthamund after his death, and becomes king of the Vandals. Under his rule, he resumes the persecution of the Catholics.

497 CE13 entries

  • Isaurian War: Anastasius I regains control of the Isauria region (Asia Minor) and has the rebel leaders executed. Anastasius I pacifies the mountain strongholds of the Isaurians, ending the revolt that they began upon his ascension to the throne 6 years ago.
  • The Ambrosian Iliad, an Illuminated manuscript on vellum, of the Iliad of Homer, is produced in Constantinople (approximate date).
  • Aryabhata, Indian astronomer and mathematician, calculates pi (π) as ≈ 62832/20000 = 3.1416, correct to four rounded-off decimal places.

498 CE9 entries

  • November 19 – Pope Anastasius II dies after a 2-year reign in which he has tried to conciliate followers of Acacius, late patriarch of Constantinople, who was excommunicated by Felix III.
  • November 22 – Anastasius is succeeded by Symmachus as the 51st pope, in the official papal selection in the Lateran Palace (Rome). Meanwhile, Antipope Laurentius is elected "pope" in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, causing a schism.
  • Kavadh I returns from exile with support of 30,000 Hephthalites (White Huns), and again assumes the Sassanid throne. He punishes his opponents and probably his brother Djamasp, who usurped the throne from him.

499 CE10 entries

  • March 1 – During a synod in Rome, which is attended by 72 bishops and all of the Roman clergy, Pope Symmachus makes Antipope Laurentius bishop of the diocese of Nocera in Campania.
  • April 26 – Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei dies of starvation in his capital at Luoyang, after a 27-year reign in which he has Sinicized his tribal relatives (Tuoba clan), created a Chinese-style government and instituted a land-reform program.
  • September – The 499 Nicopolis earthquake takes place in the borders between the regions of Mesopotamia, Pontus, and Roman Armenia. It affects the cities of Nicopolis, Neocaesarea (modern Niksar), Arsamosata, and Abarne, as well as the cultural areas of Anatolia (Asia Minor) and Mesopotamia.