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The 560s

156 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 6th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

560 CE24 entries

  • Ælla becomes king of Deira (this according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).
  • Columba quarrels with Finnian of Moville over authorship of a psalter, leading to a pitched battle the next year.
  • Elidyr of Strathclyde invades Gwynedd (Wales) and tries to expel his brother-in-law, King Rhun ap Maelgwn.

561 CE12 entries

  • March 4 – Pope Pelagius I dies in Rome after a five-year reign, and is succeeded by John III as the 61st pope.
  • November 29 – King Chlothar I ("the Old") dies at Compiègne at age 64. The Merovingian dynasty is continued by his four sons (Charibert I, Guntram, Sigebert I and Chilperic I), who divide the Frankish Kingdom and rule from the capitals at Paris, Orléans, Reims and Soissons, respectively.
  • Jnanagupta, a Buddhist monk from Gandhara (Pakistan), begins translating Buddhist texts into Chinese.

562 CE14 entries

  • December 23 – Justinian I re-consecrates Hagia Sophia after its dome is rebuilt. Paul the Silentiary, Byzantine poet, writes an epic poem (Ekphrasis).
  • Emperor Justinian I signs a peace treaty with the Sasanid Empire. The status quo ante is restored, with Lazica (modern Georgia) in Byzantine hands.
  • Belisarius stands trial for corruption in Constantinople, possibly with Procopius acting as praefectus urbi. He is found guilty and sent to prison.

563 CE9 entries

  • Emperor Justinian I pardons Belisarius; he orders his release from prison, and restores his properties and honours. He permits the general to live in obscurity, and gives him a veterans' pension.
  • The new Hagia Sophia (cost: 20,000 pounds of gold), with its numerous chapels and shrines, octagonal dome and mosaics, becomes the centre and most visible monument of Eastern Orthodoxy.
  • Tauredunum event: A mountain landslide into the Rhone river destroys a fort and two villages, and creates a tsunami in Lake Geneva. The wave which reaches Lausanne is thirteen metres high, and eight metres high by the time it hits Geneva. Describing the event, Marius Aventicensis writes that the tsunami "devastated very old villages with their men and cattle, it even destroyed many sacred places", and swept away "the bridge in Geneva, windmills and men".

564 CE10 entries

  • August 22 – Columba reports seeing the Loch Ness Monster at the River Ness (according to the "Life of St. Columba").
  • Cadoc, abbot of Llancarfan (Wales), settles in Weedon and is made bishop (approximate date).
  • Samson of Dol, one of seven founder saints of Brittany, attends a council in Paris and witnesses several royal decrees (approximate date).

565 CE28 entries

  • January 22 – Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople is deposed as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople by Justinian I after he refuses the Byzantine Emperor's order to adopt the tenets of the Aphthartodocetae, a sect of Monophysites. From April 12 he is replaced by John Scholasticus.
  • February 6 – Kʼan Joy Chitam I, ruler of the Mayan city-state of Palenque, in what is now the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico, dies after a reign of exactly 36 years.
  • Columba, an Irish missionary, spots the Loch Ness Monster on the River Ness (in present day Scotland) and saves the life of a Pict (approximate date).

566 CE17 entries

  • Justin II sends his cousin Justin to exile in Alexandria, where he is installed as Augustal prefect of Egypt. There he is murdered in his sleep, and his head is cut off and brought to Constantinople (most likely by assignment of Empress Sophia).
  • Kirtivarman I succeeds his father Pulakeshin I as king of the Chalukya dynasty (India). During his rule he completes the subjugation of the Kadambas and annexes the port of Goa.
  • Emperor Justin II, facing an empty treasury, breaks the treaty with the Gepids that has existed since 565. King Alboin of the Lombards makes an alliance with the Avars under Bayan I, at the expense of tough conditions. They demand a tenth of the Lombards' cattle and half of the war booty.

567 CE12 entries

  • Three Disasters of Wu: Emperor Wu Di of the Northern Zhou dynasty initiates the second persecution of Buddhists in China. This persecution continues until he is succeeded by his son Emperor Xuan.
  • The Second Council of Tours is held. It decrees that any cleric found in bed with his wife will be excommunicated.
  • John III, patriarch of Constantinople, organizes a compromise between the Chalcedonians and Monophysites.

568 CE17 entries

  • Mummolus, Gallo-Roman prefect, defeats the Lombards at Embrun and expels them from Provence (Southern Gaul).
  • The Avar Khaganate attempts to expel Kutrigurs who had fled the Göktürks, ordering them to go south of the Sava River; those who leave generally fall under rule of the Turks.
  • The Turks and Sassanids succeed in destroying the Hepthalites on the eastern frontier (approximate date).

569 CE13 entries

  • November 19 – In Poitiers the "Vexilla Regis" is first sung during the Procession.
  • The Nubian kingdom of Alodia is converted to Christianity by Byzantine missionaries (according to John of Ephesus).
  • Emperor Justin II and his wife Sophia send a relic of the "True Cross" to the Frankish princess Radegund, who has founded a monastery at Poitiers.