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.
Tauredunum event:[4] 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".[5]
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.
A poet from Italy named
Venantius Fortunatus arrives at the
Merovingian court at
Metz. With a strong grasp of traditional Roman poetry, Fortunatus impresses and entertains the Frankish royalty and aristocracy. The success of a Latin poet in Francia suggests that Roman culture persisted well after the Roman Empire disintegrated in Gaul in the late 5th century.[11]
Spring – The
Lombards, led by King
Alboin, cross the
Julian Alps. Their invasion of
Northern Italy is almost unopposed; withered
Byzantine forces, that remain in the
Po Valley and are based at
Ravenna, are no match for the overwhelming Lombard incursion. Residents of the Italian countryside flee at the Lombards' approach. Some retreat to the
barrier islands along the shore of the Northern
Adriatic Sea, where they establish permanent settlements: the nascent city of
Venice.[15]
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.
Britain
Æthelric succeeds his brother
Adda as king of
Bernicia (modern
Scotland). He rules from 568–572 (approximate date).
^Wickham, Chris (2005). Framing the Early Middle Ages. p. 175.
^Connor, Steve (2014-07-07). "Our explosive past is written in the Antarctic ice". i. London. p. 17.
^
abCharibert I, Edward James, The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, ed. Oliver Nicholson, (Oxford University Press, 2018), 317.
^Isidore, chapter 46; translated by Donini and Ford, p. 22
^Traditional date as given in William J. Langer, ed. An Encyclopedia of World History
^John of Biclaro, Chronicle 10. Translated by
Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain, second edition (Liverpool: University Press, 1990), p. 60
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.
Tauredunum event:[4] 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".[5]
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.
A poet from Italy named
Venantius Fortunatus arrives at the
Merovingian court at
Metz. With a strong grasp of traditional Roman poetry, Fortunatus impresses and entertains the Frankish royalty and aristocracy. The success of a Latin poet in Francia suggests that Roman culture persisted well after the Roman Empire disintegrated in Gaul in the late 5th century.[11]
Spring – The
Lombards, led by King
Alboin, cross the
Julian Alps. Their invasion of
Northern Italy is almost unopposed; withered
Byzantine forces, that remain in the
Po Valley and are based at
Ravenna, are no match for the overwhelming Lombard incursion. Residents of the Italian countryside flee at the Lombards' approach. Some retreat to the
barrier islands along the shore of the Northern
Adriatic Sea, where they establish permanent settlements: the nascent city of
Venice.[15]
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.
Britain
Æthelric succeeds his brother
Adda as king of
Bernicia (modern
Scotland). He rules from 568–572 (approximate date).
^Wickham, Chris (2005). Framing the Early Middle Ages. p. 175.
^Connor, Steve (2014-07-07). "Our explosive past is written in the Antarctic ice". i. London. p. 17.
^
abCharibert I, Edward James, The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, ed. Oliver Nicholson, (Oxford University Press, 2018), 317.
^Isidore, chapter 46; translated by Donini and Ford, p. 22
^Traditional date as given in William J. Langer, ed. An Encyclopedia of World History
^John of Biclaro, Chronicle 10. Translated by
Kenneth Baxter Wolf, Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain, second edition (Liverpool: University Press, 1990), p. 60