By place Europe •
April 30 – King
Theodahad revenges himself upon Queen
Amalasuintha. He has her taken from the capital of
Ravenna to a small island on
Lake Bolsena, where she is strangled in her bath. • The death of Amalasuintha gives
Byzantine Emperor Justinian I a pretext to invade
Italy and begin the
Gothic War. • The Byzantine city of
Justiniana Prima is founded, and later becomes a
bishop's seat of the Central
Balkans.
Byzantine Empire •
Gothic War: Emperor Justinian I appoints
Belisarius commander-in-chief (
stratēgos autokratōr), and sends a Byzantine expeditionary force of only 8,000 soldiers (half are heavy East Roman cavalry) to begin the reconquest of Italy. • Summer – Belisarius lands in
Sicily and meets little opposition, save for the
Gothic garrison of
Palermo.
Laying siege to the
citadel, he
blockades the harbour with his ships.
Mundus invades
Dalmatia and captures its capital,
Salona. • Justinian I issues the
Lex Julia and declares that a wife has no right to bring criminal charges of
adultery against a husband. This makes
divorce almost impossible in the
Byzantine Empire. •
December 31 – Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Gothic garrison of Palermo (Panormos), and ending his
consulship for the year.
Africa • Spring –
Solomon defeats the
Moorish rebels at Mount Mammes and Mount Bourgaon. He secures
Byzacena (modern
Tunisia) and establishes
fortifications along the
Numidian border. • April – Justinian I reorganises the province as an
African prefecture, centered in
Carthage. He restores frontier defences, and returns property to the
Catholic Church.
Asia • The
Northern Wei dynasty ends: The northern region of
China is split into the
Eastern Wei and the
Western Wei during a
civil war. The first ruler is
Wen Di; he makes his son
Fei Di crown prince. • Significant to the
history of agriculture, Chinese author Jia Sixia writes the treatise
"Chimin Yaoshu" in this year, and although it quotes 160 previous Chinese
agronomy books, it is the oldest existent Chinese
agriculture treatise. In over 100,000 written
Chinese characters, the book covers land preparation,
seeding, cultivation,
orchard management,
forestry,
animal husbandry,
trade, and culinary uses for
crops. • Reports of the
eruption of
Krakatoa (
Java), which possibly led to several years of climate change (see
Extreme weather events of 535–536), are recorded in the Javanese
Book of Kings.
By topic Religion •
May 8 –
Pope John II dies in
Rome after a two-year reign, and is succeeded by
Agapetus I as the 57th
pope. Agapetus is sent by King Theodahad on an
embassy to
Constantinople. • Byzantine troops drive the extremist
Monophysite party out of
Alexandria, and establish
Theodosius I as
patriarch of the
Eastern Orthodox Church. •
Anthimus I becomes
patriarch of Constantinople (535–536). • A Christian
basilica is completed at
Leptis Magna in
North Africa.
Meteorology • The
weather is reported to be unusually cold and dark in multiple parts of the world; see
Extreme weather events of 535–536. == Births ==