540

yearbox
in?=
cp=5th century
c=6th century
cf=7th century

yp1=537
yp2=538
yp3=539
year=540
ya1=541
ya2=542
ya3=543
dp3=510s
dp2=520s
dp1=530s
d=540s
dn1=550s
dn2=560s
dn3=570s__NOTOC__

Events

By place

Byzantine Empire

* General Belisarius conquers Milan and the Ostrogothic capital Ravenna.
* The Sassanids attack Daraa and capture Antioch.
* The Huns and Bulgars raid Greece.

Europe

* Ostrogoth king Witiges is succeeded by Ildibad.
* High King Custennin ap Cado of Britain is deposed and returns to Dumnonia.

By topic

Religion

* Pope Vigilius rejects Monophysitism in letters to Emperor Justinian I and Patriarch Mennas of Constantinople.
* The former Roman senator Cassiodorus establishes a monastery, the Vivarium, on his estate in Italy. He enlists highly educated and sophisticated men to copy both sacred and secular manuscripts, intending this to be their sole occupation (approximate date).
* Benedict of Nursia writes his monastic laws.

Births

* Pope Gregory I (approximate date)
* Galswintha, wife of Chilperic I
* Myrddin Wyllt, later wild man of the woods and possible source for Merlin (approximate date)

Deaths

* Dionysius Exiguus (approximate date)
* Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths
* Empress Yifu
* Empress Yujiulü

Events

* Global environmental impact (comet?) [cite web|title=In 1986 I discovered that a series of Irish oaks exhibited their narrowest rings in the immediate vicinity of..|url=http://www.aryabhata.de/illig/baillie2.doc 080205 aryabhata.de] [Baillie, M.G.L. (2007). Tree-Rings Indicate Global Environmental Downturns that could have been Caused by Comet Debris, Chap. 5 in Bobrowsky, Peter T. and Hans Rickman (eds.), "Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach", Springer-Verlag, Berlin. ISBN: 3-540-32709-6, pp. 105-122.]

References