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T’ang Dynasty in China: The practice of koan meditation (11,700 riddles and paradoxes) develops. In China, the Tang Dynasty also ushers in a Chinese Renaissance that lasts from 618 to 907. There will also be an Islamic Renaissance between 750 and 1260. And then the

Paqal, the Mayan ruler, reigns for 70 years and restores the empire and its buildings and has new ones built.

Arabia, Muhammad (Mohammed – ben – Abdallah) begins to preach in Mecca

Aethelberht (King of the Britons) converts to Christianity and Augustine is appointed Archbishop of Canterbury

The Anglo-Saxons control almost all of present-day England

Western Europe has a population of 14.7 million. Their population continued to increase around the year 1000, and until 1300, when they dropped dramatically due to the bubonic plague.

The Kingdom of Kent converts to Christianity; the rest of England will convert by 650

Modena. The Lombards reconquer the city from the Byzantines and establish a garrison of Bavarian soldiers there, in the place now called Baggiovara.

The Lombards dominated Italy: Pavia was the Lombard capital; the Kingdom was divided into Longobardia Major (in turn divided into a western area, or Neustria, and an eastern one, or Austria) and Longobardia Minor in central and southern Italy. The border in Northern Italy, first

Northern Italy. The Lombard invasion forced thousands of wealthy families to leave the mainland and move to the lagoons. Some trace the birth of several villages in the future Venetian lagoon to this period, which later merged to form Venice itself.

The city of Teotihuacan in Mexico was abandoned. However, social tensions had long been simmering between the different ethnic groups, which by 550 AD had torn the city’s social fabric apart. Things disintegrated from within, and the population dispersed into the surrounding territories, just as

The Angles attack again and push the remaining Romano-British into Wales, Cornwall and Scotland.

Third cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland, with consequences in Europe (the first was in 536, the second in 540).

The Plague of Justinian. The bubonic plague reaches Europe. It is likely the first true pandemic in history, considering the known world, in the Mediterranean basin. It has been reconstructed that the plague originated in the Nile region, then spread thousands of kilometers in 18

Plague ravages the British Isles

After the terrible 536, in 541 the bubonic plague arrived in the port of Pelusium in Egypt, Eastern Roman Empire.

A brief episode of extreme cold occurs for several years in China, North America and Europe

Possibly the worst year ever (among those documented). Temperatures drop by 1.5-2.5 degrees Celsius on average, ushering in the coldest decade of the last 2,300 years. Snow falls in summer in China. Crops are compromised, leading to terrible famines. In 541, bubonic plague arrives in

Dionysius Exiguus calculated the date of Christ’s birth as December 25, 531 years earlier (previously the calendar referred to 284 AD: the first year of Diocletian’s reign).

Southern Arabia. The Jewish king Yusuf As’ar Yath’ar (also known as Nuwas and Masruq), having ascended to the throne the year before, unleashed a wave of persecution against the Christians of the city of Najran. Thousands died. The Christian ruler of Ethiopia, Ella Atsheba, responded

Africa. The Bantu populations from Nigeria and Cameroon spread across Africa, eventually becoming the dominant population on the entire African continent, relegating the hunter-gatherer Pygmies and the Khoisan to isolated pockets of territory.

King Clovis of the Franks (France and Germany) is baptized as a Catholic bishop in Reims

The Ostrogoths, led by Theodoric, attack Constantinople. They are then driven towards Italy, which they conquer in 493. Theodoric settles in Ravenna, where he rules for thirty years.

The barbarian general Odoacer is acclaimed king and Roman patrician, and governs Italy

Fall of the Western Roman Empire. Romulus Augustulus, the last Western Roman emperor, is deposed by Odoacer, king of the Heruli, who proclaims himself king of Italy. Odoacer was a mercenary leader of the Roman imperial army who had rebelled against the young emperor. After

China. The Sui imperial dynasty created the Keju examinations, later refined by the Tang emperors. They gave China a compact, homogeneous, and competent state administration. They would become the Gaokao tests in modern China. The Keju also served as a social lift for the less

Chaos floods the world:Berbers, Burgundians, Franks, Alemanni, Goths, Saxons, Vandals, Huns (Attila), Ostrogoths, Visigoths, etc. Fall of the Western Roman Empire, Odoacer king of Italy, Muhammad, Caliphates, Muslims invade North Africa-Turkey-Spain, Charlemagne, Carolingians, Defeat of the Lombards, Muslims in Southern Italy, Coffee in Arabia, Otto

Birth of the Christmas and Easter tradition

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire (later called the Byzantine Empire) will survive for another thousand years; the temporal power of the Church for another 1500 years.

The Vandals, this time coming from Africa, carry out the second sack of Rome

Modena. Attila’s Huns passed right past the city, sparing it. Legend has it that Saint Geminiano caused a fog to descend to hide Modena from the Huns.

Western Roman Emperor Aetius sends Pope Leo I to treat with Attila west of Milan; the Pope manages, with chests of gold, to convince Attila to retreat.

Attila’s Huns sack and destroy Aquileia, which will never be rebuilt, and invade Northern Italy; refugees from the destroyed Venetian cities take refuge in the lagoons and found the city of Venice.

Battle of the Catalan Fields or Chalen (Northern France) between Romans+Ostrogoths+Franks+Visigoths and Huns, 30,000 – 50,000 men are involved in battle for 24 hours, the Huns are defeated; Attila’s warriors are struck by smallpox; the Romans of Aetius and the Visigoths of Theodoric defeat the

Aetius, son of a Roman general, and former hostage to the Huns as a diplomatic exchange in 406, convinces various barbarian tribes to join him against the Huns.

Attila, leader of the Huns, invades Gaul with the Celts and Ostrogoths

Theodosius (Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire) dies; he is succeeded by Marcian.

The Huns invade Roman Greece and sack hundreds of cities including 60 fortified ones

Saxon attack on the Britons; Roman civilization finally collapses in the British Isles.

Attila absolute ruler of the Huns.

The Romans grant lands to the Huns in Hungary

Kingdom of the Vandals in Africa.

Nestorius is the Patriarch of Constantinople. He advocates the separation of the two natures of Christ: the divine and the human. The Nestorians spread first to Syria and then eastward, reaching China, where a Nestorian stele dating to the 8th century is located in Xian,

Valentinian III is Roman Emperor

Vortigen rules much of southern England

John is Roman Emperor

Peace Treaty between the Romans and the Huns

Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse

Ravenna Chancellery. A law is promulgated ordering the Jews, calling them a perverse people, to leave the army (Theodosian Code, 16, 8, 24). It is also known as the “Exclusion Law.”

The imperial order to arrest and execute Stilicho arrives in Ravenna. Stilicho attempts to take refuge in a church at night, but the next day, Honorius’s soldiers enter and swear before the bishop that Stilicho would be spared, only sentenced to prison. As proof, they

Alaric invades Italy: the imperial capital is moved to Ravenna

It is reported that the cold is so intense that the Black Sea freezes over.

On the tomb of Geminiano, 50m south of the Via Claudia (now Via Emilia Centro), a first Christian temple was built, on the initiative of the bishop of Modena Theodore.

Augustine (later Saint Augustine) wrote Confessions. Among other things, he questioned the nature of time: “It is in my mind, then, that I measure time. I must not allow my mind to insist that time is something objective. When I measure time, I am measuring

Geminiano, bishop of Modena, dies

The oldest list corresponding to the current canon of the Christian Bible is first found in a letter of Athanasius of Alexandria in 367, in accordance with the subsequent decree of Pope Damasus in 382. This canon has prevailed to this day through the mediation

Alaric, commanding the Goths, plunders Greece

The Christian Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity the state religion and banned all other religions, whose rites and traditions did not disappear completely but were partially absorbed by Christianity (December 25th, which is the Christian Christmas, but also the birth of Mithras, the cult of the

The Visigoths plunder Greece and the Balkans

The Christian Emperor Theodosius orders Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, to destroy all pagan monuments; the Library, being located inside the Temple of Serapis, was partially involved in the destruction.

Edict of Thessalonica: Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire by order of Emperor Theodosius.

Theodosius is Roman Emperor (office of Augustus held jointly with Valentinian II) Theodosius settles the Germanic Goths barbarians on the borders of the Empire, enlisting them as federates

Starving Visigoths attack the Roman city of Marcianople, in present-day Bulgaria; it is a bloodbath.

The Visigoths, exasperated by the taxes and bribes demanded by Roman officials, react and defeat the Romans in battle.

The Huns violently attack the peaceful Visigoth villages on the shores of the Black Sea, in present-day Ukraine

Valentinian II is Roman Emperor (office of Augustus held jointly with Theodosius)

The Picts and Irish manage to breach Roman defences in the North and West of England

The oldest list corresponding to the current canon of the Christian Bible is first found in a letter of Athanasius of Alexandria in 367, in accordance with the subsequent decree of Pope Damasus in 382. This canon has prevailed to this day through the mediation

Geminiano becomes bishop of Modena. San Zemiàn l’è elêt Vaschev ed Modna

Roman Empire. The Christian emperors forbade the destruction of the pagan temples that adorned the cities.

Edict of Constantine: full freedom is granted to the Christian religion.

Geminiano, future bishop of the city and then patron saint, was born in Cognento (Modena).

The Huns invade northern China and the imperial court is forced to flee south; the Huns will remain in northern China for 300 years.

Iran. A large silver plaque depicts Shapur II on horseback killing a deer, which in Zoroastrian belief represents the king who imposes divine order on demonic chaos. The universe, according to Zoroastrianism, is in fact a conflict between the rival forces of good and evil,

Constantine the Great is crowned Roman Emperor in York (Eboracum to the Romans)

The first sung Christian vigils (or at least the first ones for which there is evidence) were composed at the foot of Mount Ararat in Armenia.

Armenia is the first country to adopt Catholicism as its official religion.

Thanks to the technology of three-hulled canoes, the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean was reached and populated by Austronesians from the island of Borneo. There is no evidence that they came from Africa via the Middle East, so they must have really crossed

The Visigoths in Romania are invaded by other Germanic tribes who are also fleeing from the Huns

The Visigoths settle north of the Danube and in Dacia (Romania)