Crime & Justice in the 5th century

38 sourced entries, 401 CE to 493 CE, oldest first. Also see Crime & Justice across every century or everything else in the 5th century.

• 401Piracy is committed by slave-traders from Galatia (Anatolia), along the coasts of Africa.source
• 404Fravitta, a Goth serving the Eastern Roman Empire as a high-ranking general, is executed on the behest of a powerful official named Ioannes. Fravitta is executed because he accused Ioannes of pitting Emperor Arcadius and Emperor Honorius (of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, respectively) against each other. The execution of Fravitta results in the Eastern Roman Empire losing one of their most loyal and competent generals. (404 or 405)source
• 405Flavius Aetius is sent as a child hostage at the court of Alaric I, king of the Visigoths.source
• 406August 23 – Radagaisus is executed; 12,000 "barbarians" are incorporated into the Roman army, or sold as slaves.source
• 408August 13 – During a review of troops at Pavia, the soldiers stationed at this city murder the dignitaries present, then rage through the city, slaying anyone they suspected of being a supporter of Stilicho.source
• 408August 22 – Stilicho is accused of treason against Honorius and is decapitated at Ravenna. His Hun bodyguard is killed; mass murders of Vandal soldiers follow.source
• 408Attila, age 2, is sent as a child hostage to the court at Rome and in return, the Romans send Flavius Aetius to the Huns.source
• 416Priscus Attalus, Roman usurper, is forced to participate in a triumph celebrated by Emperor Honorius, in the streets of Rome. After the festivities, he is exiled to the Lipari Islands (north of Sicily).source
• 424August 4 – (Jing'ping era, 2nd year, 6th month ( liùyuè), the guichou day) Former Emperor Shao of China, exiled to Suzhou is murdered by an assassin.source
• 427Bonifacius, Roman governor (Last of the Romans), revolts in Africa against Emperor Valentinian III. Under the influence of Aetius, he is convicted of treason by empress-mother Galla Placidia.source
• 429The Temple of Goddess Athena on the Acropolis of Athens is sacked. Athenian Pagans are persecuted.source
• 430May - Flavius Felix, his wife and a deacon are accused of plotting against Aetius. They are arrested in Ravenna and executed. Aetius is granted the title of patricius (Roman nobility).source
• 434Justa Grata Honoria, older sister of Valentinian, becomes pregnant from an officer in her household. Circles in the court at Ravenna assume inevitably that Honoria is planning to raise her paramour to imperial rank and challenge her brother. Valentinian then has him executed.source
• 438Emperor Theodosius II forbids the divulging of secrets of naval carpentry, probably to avoid its spread to the rising Vandal power in North Africa.source
• 440The Parting of Lot and Abraham, mosaic in the nave arcade, Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (Rome), is made.source
• 446Three Disasters of Wu: The Northern Wei dynasty begins persecuting Buddhists, having heretofore encouraged them. The drain of manpower and tax money to temples and monasteries has threatened the secular government, and the reaction is fierce: monks and nuns are murdered, temples and icons destroyed. All men under age 50 are prohibited from joining any monastic order in a program that will continue until 450, helping the Confucianist philosophy of the Han dynasty to gain dominance over Buddhism.source
• 449Flavius Orestes, Roman aristocrat, is sent to Attila's court and becomes a high-ranking secretary (notarius). He is the father of the future emperor Romulus Augustulus.source
• 453May 27 – Liu Shao is executed, together with other members of his family.source
• 453Theodoric II succeeds his brother Thorismund as king of the Visigoths, Thorismund having been murdered after he violated the alliance with the Western Roman Empire.source
• 455March 16 – Emperor Valentinian III, age 35, is assassinated by two Hunnic retainers of the late Flavius Aetius, while training with the bow on the Campus Martius (Rome), ending the Theodosian dynasty. His primicerius sacri cubiculi, Heraclius, is also murdered.source
• 455May 31 – Maximus is stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome. A widespread panic occurs when many citizens hear the news that the Vandals are plundering the Italian mainland.source
• 456September 17 – Remistus, Roman general (magister militum), is besieged with a Gothic force at Ravenna and later executed in the Palace in Classis, outside the city.source
• 461August 2 – Majorian is arrested near Tortona (Northern Italy), and deposed by Ricimer (magister militum) as puppet emperor.source
• 461August 7 – Majorian, having been beaten and tortured for five days, is beheaded near the Iria River (Lombardy).source
• 462September 1 – Possible start of the first Byzantine indiction cycle.source
• 466Tarasicodissa, an Isaurian officer, comes with evidence that Ardabur (magister militum) is forming a conspiracy against Leo I. Ardabur is arrested for treason.source
• 466King Theodoric II is killed by his younger brother Euric, who succeeds him on the throne. He conquers Hispania and the harbor city of Marseille (Southern Gaul), adding them to the existing Visigothic Kingdom.source
• 468August – Marcellinus is murdered in Sicily, probably at the instigation of his political rival, Ricimer. Heraclius is left to fight alone against the Vandals; after a 2-year campaign in the desert he returns to Constantinople.source
• 470Revolt 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.source
• 471Basiliscus, 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.source
• 475A Bodhisattva (detail of a wall painting in the Ajanta Caves) in Maharashtra (India) of the Gupta period) is made (approximate date).source
• 476August 28 – Orestes is arrested by Odoacer near Piacenza, and swiftly executed.source
• 476Xian Wen Di, Retired Emperor of Northern Wei, is murdered by Empress Feng. She assumes regency over the young Xiao Wen Di.source
• 477Armatus, Byzantine military commander (magister militum), is killed by order of emperor Zeno, being murdered by his own friend Onoulphus after supporting the rebellion of his uncle Basiliscus in 475.source
• 479Summer – 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.source
• 490Summer – The Burgundians, under King Gundobad, cross the Alps and plunder Liguria. Many Romans are taken into captivity.source
• 493March 15 – Odoacer is invited to a banquet organised in order to celebrate the peace treaty. During the festivities, Odoacer is killed by Theodoric the Great. His body is skillfully sliced in half in full view of his guests. A massacre of Odoacer's soldiers and supporters follows.source
• 493Clovis I marries the Burgundian princess Clotilde, age 18; she is brought up in the Catholic faith and is the daughter of King Chilperic II. Her father is murdered in the same year by his brother Gundobad.source