440s

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	4th century – 5th century – 6th century
Decades:	410s 420s 430s – 440s – 450s 460s 470s
Years:	440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449
Categories:	Births – Deaths – Architecture Establishments – Disestablishments

440s: events by year

Contents: 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449

By place

Roman Empire

• Flavius Aetius, Roman general (magister militum), returns as triumphator back to Rome after several years' fighting the Burgundians and Visigoths in Gaul. He is honoured by a statue erected by the Senate and by order of emperor Valentinian III.

Europe

• The Huns under Attila reappear in force along the frontier of the Western Roman Empire. They attack merchants on the north bank of the Danube and cities in Illyricum, including (according to Priscus) Viminacium, city of Moesia.

Africa

• A Vandal fleet and their allies (Alans, Goths and Moors) set out from Carthage for Sicily, the principal supplier of oil and grain to Italy after the loss of North Africa. They loot all the coastal towns and besiege Palermo. Heavily laden ships return to the court of king Genseric.

China

• Dynasties of the North and South: The Chinese Empire is unified by the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Northern state will have three competing dynasties—Northern Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Liang, while the Southern state is dominated by the Song (or Liu Song) Dynasty.

Asia

• The Hepthalites (White Huns) move south from the Altai Mountains region into Transoxiana, Bactria, Khorasan and eastern Persia.
• A center of Buddhist studies is established at Nalanda in Bihar on the plains of the Ganges River (India).

By topic

Art

• The Parting of Lot and Abraham, mosaic in the nave arcade, Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (Rome), is made.

Ancient Games

• Chaturanga, Indian war game, and a ancestor of chess through the Persian game of Shatranj (or Chatrang), evolves in the Indus Valley on the Indian subcontinent (approximate date).

Religion

• August 18 – Pope Sixtus III dies after a 8-year reign in which he has resisted heresy and sponsored major construction programs in Rome. He is succeeded by Leo I as the 45th pope.
• September 29 – Leo I begins to formulate orthodoxy and condems Eutychianism, an extreme form of monophysitism which holds that the human nature of Christ is absorbed by his divine nature.
• Winter – Leo I sends a letter to Valentinian III, stating "by the Holy Spirit's inspiration the emperor needs no human instruction and is incapable of doctrinal error".

By place

Roman Empire

• Emperor Valentinian III signs a peace treaty with king Genseric, and recognise the Vandal Kingdom. He grants him sovereignty over most of Africa. Genseric gives back Sicily and Mauretania (Algeria and Morocco). This marks the end of the Vandal migrations; they settle in North Africa with Carthage as their capital.
• Valentinian III does a marriage proposal for his eldest daughter Eudocia and Genseric's son Huneric. He is already married with a Visigoth princess and Genseric decides to free him of his obligations by accusing her of trying to poison him. He led her mutilated - her ears and nose are cut off - and sends her back to her father Theodoric I, in Toulouse (Gaul).

Europe

• The Huns on campaign along the Danube and the Great Morava, destroy the city of Naissus (modern Serbia). They have mastered siege technology and are able to capture fortified cities. The Roman Senate agrees to pay Attila a tribute of 700 pounds of gold per year.

Ireland

• Eógan mac Néill, founder of the kingdom of Ailech (County Tyrone), is baptized by Saint Patrick. He becomes the first Catholic High King of Ireland.

By topic

Religion

• The Monastery of St. Shenouda the Archimandrite (White Monastery) near Sohag (Egypt) is built.

By place

Roman Empire

• The Burgundians sign a peace treaty with Rome, agreeing to serve as foederati in the Roman army. They begin to move from the Upper Rhine and Flavius Aetius, commander-in-chief (magister militum), gives them land in the Geneva area (Maxima Sequanorum).

Britannia

• Period of civil war and famine in Britain, caused by rival kingdoms and Pictish invasions; the situation aggravates by tensions between Pelagian and Roman factions. Migration of pro-Roman citizens towards Gaul.

By topic

Religion

• Gunabhadra, Indian Buddhist monk, is a invited honored guest by emperor Wen of Liu Song (Liu Song Dynasty). He translates the Lankavatara Sutra from Sanskrit into the Chinese language.

By place

Roman Empire

• Flavius Aetius, Roman general (magister militum), settles the Alans around Valence and Orléans to contain unrest in Brittany.
• Eudocia, eldest daughter of emperor Valentinian III, is betrothed to Huneric, son of the Vandal king Genseric (hostage in Italy).

Europe

• Attila the Hun establishes his residence along the Tisza River (modern Hungary) and plans the coming campaign in the Balkans.
• A "pestilence" that is probably bubonic plague strikes the British Isles and makes the country vulnerable to internal revolts.

Ireland

• The Irish city of Armagh is founded by Saint Patrick.

By topic

Religion

• Pope Leo I extinguishes the Gallican vicariate.
• Dioscorus I becomes Patriarch of Alexandria.

Technology

• The wheelbarrow invented by a Chinese artisan will gain worldwide use as a labor-saving device.

By place

Roman Empire

• Emperor Valentinian III issues an imperial edict against Manichaeism. Heavy penalties are decreed who does not denounce his religion and retain Manichaean books.
• Petronius Maximus, prominent aristocrat, is given the title of Patrician. He becomes the most honored of all non-imperial Romans and political rival of Flavius Aetius.

Europe

• Bleda, co-ruler of the Huns, dies in a hunting accident. He is possibly been murdered at the instigation of his younger brother Attila, with whom he has ruled since 434. Now about 39, Attila takes the throne for himself and becomes king of the Hunnic Empire.

By topic

Religion

• Domnus II, Patriarch of Antioch, summons a synod of Syrian bishops to confirm the deposition of Athanasius of Perrha.
• Ireland: The Diocese of Armagh is created.

By place

Roman Empire

• Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, visits Ravenna seeking to soften imperial hostility towards the Bagaudae. On his arrival at the capital, empress-mother Galla Placidia sends him a silver dish with a choice selection of prepared dainties—all vegetarian, out of respect for the bishop's strict diet. Germanus petitions the Senate for leniency for the citizens of Armorica (Brittany).

Britannia

• The Britons and Anglo-Saxon mercenaries under king Vortigern, appeal to Flavius Aetius (magister militum of Gaul), for military assistance in their struggle against the Picts and Irish. Aetius has enough problems with Attila the Hun and is unable to send any help. (This according to Groans of the Britons.)
• The Cor Tewdws (College of Theodosius), Llantwit Major (Wales), is supposedly burned down by Irish pirates.

China

• 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 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.

By topic

Religion

• A local synod is held by Turibius of Astorga.
• Flavian becomes patriarch of Constantinople.

By place

Roman Empire

• January 27 – The Walls of Constantinople are severely damaged by an earthquake, destroying large parts of the wall, including 57 towers. The population is threatened by a plaque. Emperor Theodosius II orders Constantine, praetorian prefect of the East, to supervise the repairs. He employs the city's demoi ("Circus factions") in the work and rebuilt the walls within 60 days.
• The Huns, led by Attila, cross the Danube and invade the Balkans as far as Thermopylae (Greece). During the invasion Serdica (modern Sofia) is destroyed. For disobeying the terms of the treaty made since 442, Attila triples his demand for tribute to 2,100 pounds (ca. 700 kg) of gold per year; and the ransom for each Roman prisoner to 12 solidi.
• Theodosius II sends an embassy to Attila; Priscus of Panium, envoy for the Eastern Roman Empire, records one of few eyewitness accounts of Hun kingdom.
• Battle of the Utus: Attila defeats the Roman army near the Vit River (Bulgaria). The Huns are forced to abandon the siege of Constantinople. They marched north and plunder the defenseless Balkan provinces (including Thrace, Scythia, Moesia, Dacia and Illyricum).
• Winter – Theodosius II chooses a policy to protect Constantinople against the Huns. He removes Aspar and Areobindus (magister militum) from their military commands.

Britannia

• Vortigern, king of the Britons, receives the Saxon leaders Hengist and Horsa "as friends" and grants the brothers the Isle of Thanet, most easterly point of Kent (England).

Europe

• Merovech becomes king of the Salian Franks and founder of the Merovingian Dynasty. He settles his Frankish tribe near the Dutch river Merwede, part of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta (Netherlands).

By topic

Arts and Sciences

• The first entry in the Annales Cambriæ refers to this year.

Religion

• Second visit of Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, to Britain. He spiritually combat the revived Pelagian threat and expells the Irish from Powys (Wales).
• The Synod of Toledo (Spain) tries to add the filioque clause to the Nicene Creed. The Greek Orthodox Church refuses to go along with this idea.

By place

Roman Empire

• Emperor Theodosius II sends an embassy to Attila the Hun; Anatolius, Roman general (magister militum) and responsible for the security of the Eastern frontier, achieves a peace treaty with the Huns in exchange for an annual tribute of 2,100 pounds of gold per year.
• Attila demands in the treaty the evacuation of the territory running from Singidunum (Belgrade, in Serbia) 300 miles east along the Danube to Novae (Svishtov, in Bulgaria). This depopulated buffer zone deprived the Romans of their natural defensive advantages.
• Flavius Aetius suppresses the Bagaudae in Armorica (Gaul) and defeats the Salian Franks under king Chlodio near Arras (Belgica Secunda); the invaders are stopped around a river-crossing near Vicus Helena.

Europe

• Rechiar succeeds his father Rechila as king of the Suebi in Galicia (Northern Spain). He marries a daughter of the Visigoth king Theodoric I and converts to Catholicism.

China

• Kou Qianzhi, Chinese Daoist reformer, dies after having converted emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei and established Daoism as the country's dominant religion. His death presages a revival of Buddhism as China's dominant faith.

By topic

Religion

• Eutyches is accused of heresy at a synod held in Constantinople.

By place

Roman Empire

• Emperor Valentinian III sends an embassy to Attila the Hun. The purpose of the meeting is a long-running dispute over spoils of war during the Danube offensive (441–442). Attila claims his lost property, but Valentinian and Flavius Aetius (magister militum) refuse this request.

Britannia

• Vortigern, king of the Britons, forms an alliance with Hengist and Horsa, by tradition chieftains of the Jutes, who led the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. He begins an conquest that is facilitated by an epidemic plague and weakens the country (approximate date).

By topic

Religion

• August 3 – The Second Council of Ephesus opens, chaired by Dioscorus, patriarch of Alexandria. Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople, and Domnus II, patriarch of Antioch, are deposed on August 8.
• October – A Roman synod repudiates all the decisions of the Second Council of Ephesus.
• Anatolius becomes patriarch of Constantinople.
• Maximus II becomes patriarch of Antioch.