540

540 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	540; DXL
Ab urbe condita	1293
Assyrian calendar	5290
Balinese saka calendar	461–462
Bengali calendar	−53
Berber calendar	1490
Buddhist calendar	1084
Burmese calendar	−98
Byzantine calendar	6048–6049
Chinese calendar	己未年 (Earth Goat); 3237 or 3030; — to —; 庚申年 (Metal Monkey); 3238 or 3031
Coptic calendar	256–257
Discordian calendar	1706
Ethiopian calendar	532–533
Hebrew calendar	4300–4301
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	596–597
- Shaka Samvat	461–462
- Kali Yuga	3640–3641
Holocene calendar	10540
Iranian calendar	82 BP – 81 BP
Islamic calendar	85 BH – 84 BH
Javanese calendar	427–428
Julian calendar	540; DXL
Korean calendar	2873
Minguo calendar	1372 before ROC; 民前1372年
Nanakshahi calendar	−928
Seleucid era	851/852 AG
Thai solar calendar	1082–1083
Tibetan calendar	阴土羊年; (female Earth-Goat); 666 or 285 or −487; — to —; 阳金猴年; (male Iron-Monkey); 667 or 286 or −486

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	5th century; 6th century ; 7th century;
Decades:	520s; 530s; 540s ; 550s; 560s;
Years:	537; 538; 539; 540 ; 541; 542; 543;

Year 540 (DXL) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Iustinus without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1293 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 540 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Events

Emperor Justinian I offers to make peace with Vitiges, but Belisarius refuses to transmit the message. The Ostrogoths then offer to support Belisarius as emperor of the West.
May – Gothic War: Belisarius conquers Mediolanum (modern Milan) and the Gothic capital Ravenna. Vitiges and his wife Matasuntha are taken as captives to Constantinople.
Belisarius consolidates Italy and begins mopping-up operations, capturing the Gothic fortifications. The cities Ticinum and Verona north of River Po remain in Gothic hands.
Ildibad succeeds Vitiges as king of the Ostrogoths, and installs his nephew Totila as commander of the Gothic army. He recaptures Venetia and Liguria in Northern Italy.^[1]

In Britain various kingdoms are united by a ruler (High King) or overlord, while wars are fought between others.
King Custennin ap Cado is deposed, and returns to Dumnonia in the south-west of Great Britain.

King Khosrau I, jealous of Justinian's victories in the West, receives an embassy from the Ostrogoths at Ctesiphon, urging him to act before the Byzantines become too powerful.
Khosrau I breaks the Eternal Peace after eight years. The Persian army marches up the River Euphrates, and follows a path to extract tributes from towns along the way to Antioch.
Khosrau I captures Antioch after a fierce siege; he systematically plunders the city to the extent that marble statues and mosaics are transported to Persia.^[2]

Solomon captures the Aurès Mountains from the Moors and extends Byzantine authority over Numidia and Mauretania Sitifensis. The city of Theveste (Algeria) is restored and fortified.^[3]

Cassiodorus, former Roman statesman, establishes a monastery at his estate in Italy. The Vivarium "monastery school" is for highly educated and sophisticated men, who copy sacred and secular manuscripts, intending for this to be their sole occupation (approximate date).
Pope Vigilius rejects Monophysitism in letters to Justinian I and patriarch Menas of Constantinople.
Benedict of Nursia writes his monastic rules, containing precepts for his monks (approximate date).

Global environmental cooling occurs, due either to a comet impact or volcanic eruption in Central America, evidenced by global tree ring growth diminution.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] Recent evidence from Swiss ice core points to volcanic eruptions in Iceland.^[9] Historical evidence records this earlier as the Extreme weather events of 535–536.

^ Herwig Wolfram, History of the Goths (University of California Press), 1990
^ Rome at War (p. 56). Michael Whitby, 2002. ISBN 1-84176-359-4
^ Graham, Alexander (2002) [1902]. Roman Africa. North Stratford, New Hampshire: Ayer Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN 0-8369-8807-8.
^ "List of Rulers of Korea". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
^ "In 1986 I discovered that a series of Irish oaks exhibited their narrowest rings in the immediate vicinity of." 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.
^ Highfield, Roger; Uhlig, Robert; Derbyshire, David (September 9, 2000). "Comet caused Dark Ages, says tree ring expert". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
^ "El Chichon eruption implicated in Mayan upheaval - BBC News". BBC News. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
^ Gibbons, Ann (November 15, 2018). "Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive'". Science | AAAS. Retrieved June 19, 2020.