The previous part is here: https://bartoll.se/2023/09/history-matrix-part39/
All parts of this series can be found here: https://bartoll.se/world-playbook-quickstart/
In 506 AD, Emperor Anastasius I accepted a peace agreement with the Sasanian Empire (Persia,) allegedly based on status quo.
In Europe, King Alaric II issued the “Lex Romana Visigothorum,” also known as “Breviary of Alaric;” an abstract of Roman laws and imperial decrees, compiled by a commission appointed to provide a law code for Alaric’s Roman subjects. The “Lex Romana” would within the years to come be the standard for justice in the Visigothic kingdom.
The Visigoths also captured the city of Dertosa in Catalonia, where they arrested and executed the Roman usurper Peter, who allegedly was seen as a tyrant by the Visigothic rulers of Spain. His head was sent as a trophy to Saragossa (Spain.)
In Italy, the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great, persuaded the Antipope Laurentius to resign his claim to the See of Rome to Pope Symmachus, ending the division that had taken place withing the Catholic Church. After receiving Theodoric’s decision, Laurentius allegedly fasted until he died.
In 507 AD, Emperor Anastasius I completed the strategic fortress at Dara (Northern Mesopotamia,) where he also raised the city walls to 30 feet (10 m.) Being alarmed by the attacks and pillaging of Slavs and Bulgars in Thrace, he also started the construction of the ‘Anastasian Wall,’ stretching from the Black Sea to Propontis, across the narrow peninsula near Constantinople (present-day Turkey.)
In Europe, a Frankish army under command of Clovis I invaded the Visigothic Kingdom and defeated the forces of King Alaric II near Poitiers. The Visigoths refused to be enslaved and retreated to Septimania (Southern Gaul.) Clovis proceeded to annex Aquitania, and captured Toulouse.
As Alaric II did not survive the Frankish invasion, he was succeeded by his son Gesalec, who settled at Narbonne and managed to form an alliance with the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great.
In 508 AD, Emperor Anastasius I, quick to turn his coat, formally recognized Clovis I of the Salian Franks as ruler of Gaul. He sent a Byzantine fleet of 100 warships to raid the coasts of Italy, belonging to Theodoric the Great who was in support of the new Visigothic king Gesalec.
Meanwhile, King Clovis I of the Franks failed in an effort to take the walled city of Carcassonne (Southern Gaul.) As he retreated, he established Paris (Lutetia) as his capital where he also got baptized, making Roman Catholicism the official religion of the Kingdom of the Franks. This was the beginning of the real foothold for the Roman Catholic Church in what would become modern Europe, and why Paris would be central in its history.
By 509 AD, Clovis I had officially become the first Catholic king of the Franks, uniting all the Frankish tribes under his rule. He controlled an immense territory in Gaul (modern France.)
In 510 AD, King Theodoric the Great assisted the city of Arles and raised the Frankish siege. The Ostrogoths also managed to invade parts of Provence (Southern Gaul,) and consolidated their gains in the region.
In early 511 AD, the First Council of Orléans was held where Clovis I convened a synod of Gallic bishops to reform the Church, which in reality simply was the forming of an even stronger bond between the Crown and the Catholic episcopate (the bishops,) giving the Roman Catholic Church even more power.
On November 27, King Clovis I died at Paris (Lutetia) at age 45. The Frankish Merovingian dynasty was continued by his four sons Theuderic I, Chlodomer, Childebert I and Chlothar I, who divided the Frankish Kingdom and ruled from the capitals at Metz, Orléans, Paris and Soissons, respectively.
In the Ostrogothic Kingdom, Theodoric the Great had expanded his territory to reach from the Atlantic Ocean to the Adriatic Sea.
In 512 AD, Emperor Anastasius I ended a period of Chalcedonian Orthodoxy, and instead imposed his own monophysitist beliefs on the population.
In 513 AD, the Byzantine general Vitalian revolted against Emperor Anastasius I, and conquered a large part of the Diocese of Thrace. As a countermeasure, Anastasius I reduced taxes in the provinces of Bithynia and Asia, to prevent them from joining the rebellion.
Later in the year as negotiations begun, Vitalian declared his demands, which included restoration of Chalcedonian Orthodoxy and the settling of the Thracian foederati. As his answer, Anastasius I sent a Byzantine army of about 80,000 men under his nephew Hypatius.
Vitalian defeated the Byzantines at Acris (Bulgaria,) on the Black Sea coast. He then proceeded to attack their camp of fortified wagons during the night, and in a crushing victory they killed a large part of the Byzantine imperial army.
In early 514 AD, Vitalian marched towards Constantinople and a fleet of 200 vessels sailed from the Black Sea ports to blockade the entrance of the harbor of the capital. As riots escalated within the city, with many casualties, Emperor Anastasius I was finally pressured to negotiate with Vitalian.
Anastasius I agreed to pay 5,000 pounds of gold as tribute and for the release of his nephew Hypatius. Temporarily satisfied, Vitalian retreated back to Lower Moesia.
In the autumn of 515 AD, Vitalian once again mobilized his army and marched towards Constantinople. He captured the suburb of Sycae (present-day Turkey.)
Emperor Anastasius I gave Marinus, the former praetorian prefect of the East, command over the Byzantine army. Marinus defeated the rebel fleet at the harbor entrance using a sulfur-based chemical substance, similar to the later Greek fire. Weeks later, Marinus landed with an army on the shore of Sycae and defeated the rebels. Vitalian escaped to the north.
In 516 AD, according to the poem of Beowulf and Frankish lore, Hygelac, the king of the Geats (from Gautland/Geatland/Götaland in Sweden,) raided the Lower Rhine, but was ultimately defeated by a Frankish force led by Theudebert.
By 518 AD, Emperor Anastasius I died childless at Constantinople at age 88. He was succeeded by Justin (Flavius Justinus,) the commander of the palace guard. After his death, Anastasius’ left the imperial treasury richer by 23,000,000 solidi or 320,000 pounds of gold.
Justin I proceeded to found the Justinian Dynasty and made his nephew Flavius Petrus Sabbatius (later Justinian I) his trusted advisor. He became the emperor’s close confidant and acted as regent. Theocritus, another candidate to the throne, was accused of conspiracy and was swiftly executed.
In 519 AD Brittania, Cerdic became the first king of the Kingdom of Wessex.
Around 520 AD Brittania, the Kingdom of East Anglia was formed, by the merging of the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and the eastern part of The Fens.
In southern Europe, Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric the Great built the Mausoleum of Theodoric as his future tomb in Ravenna (Italy.)
In Asia, Buddhism continued to be spread as Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk, arrived in Luoyang. He later proceeded his travels to the northern Chinese kingdom of Wei, to the Shaolin Monastery.
In 522 AD, Amalaric, age 20, became the new king of the Visigoths.
In 523 AD, King Chlothar I of the Franks took part in an expedition against Burgundy and captured the town of Autun. After the victory, he made new plans to expand the territory he inherited from his late father, Clovis I.
In Africa, Hilderic succeeded his uncle Thrasamund after a 27-year reign, and thus became the new king of the Vandals and Alans. Due to infiltrated scholars during his upbringing, he favored Roman Catholicism, but still granted the inhabitants religious freedom.
By May in 524 AD, King Sigismund of Burgundy was executed at Orléans after an 8-year reign. He was succeeded by his brother Godomar who rallied the Burgundian army and began plundering Frankish territory. Godomar also managed to ally with Theodoric the Great and his Ostrogoths, as the threat from the Frankish kingdom had grown stronger.
On June 25, the Burgundians and the allied Ostrogoths defeated the Franks led by Chlodomer, Childebert I and Chlothar near Isère (France,) thus successfully averting the Frankish advance into Burgundy. During the battle Chlodomer was killed. Queen Guntheuc, the widow of Chlodomer, was forced into marrying her former husband’s brother Chlothar I. After the wedding, Chlothar I murdered two of her children, but the eldest son Clodoald survived by escaping to Provence.
In 525 AD, Emperor Justin I rebuilt the city of Anazarbus in modern Turkey and renamed it “Justinopolis.”
In Europe, Frankish tribesmen, under the command of King Chlothar I, raided and plundered Burgundy.
In 526 AD, King Theodoric the Great died at Ravenna and his daughter Amalasuintha took power as regent for her 10-year-old son Athalaric.
In Persia, a new Roman-Persian war was brewing as King Kavad I, assisted by his Arabian vassal, Al-Mundhir III, began a campaign in the Transcaucasus region and Upper Mesopotamia.
In April of 527 AD, Emperor Justin I, suffering from an infectious wound, named his nephew Justinian I as co-ruler. Months later, in August at age 77, Justin I died at Constantinople and was succeeded by Justinian I, who became sole emperor.
Before the end of the year, Justinian I had reorganized the command structure of the Byzantine army and also separated the elite forces into a small but highly trained army, dedicated for special operations.
In Brittania, the Anglo-Saxon King Cerdic of Wessex and his son Cynric defeated the Britons at Cerdicesleah (present-day Chearsley.) They take control of the land between what is now London and St Albans.
In 528 AD, Emperor Justinian I appointed a commission to codify all laws of the Roman Empire that were still in force from Hadrian and up to the current date. This compilation became known as the ‘Corpus Juris Civilis.’
In Asia, King Seong of Baekje adopted Buddhism as the state religion. And in South Korea, Bulguksa, a Buddhist temple was built.
In 529 AD, by April 7, Emperor Justinian I issued the ‘Codex Justinianus,’ the Code of Civil Laws, reformulating Roman law in an effort to control his unruly people.
Also, the Academy originally founded at Athens by Plato around 387 BC was closed down by order of Justinian I, on charges of ‘un-Christian’ activity. Many of the school’s professors emigrated to Persia and Syria.
In Italy, the Benedictine Order, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, a monastic religious order of the Roman Catholic Church was established at Monte Cassino near Naples by Benedict of Nursia, who founded a monastery and formulated very strict rules for his monks as stated in the “Regula Benedicti.”