The 450s decade ran from January 1, 450, to December 31, 459.
Events
450
By placeedit
Byzantiumedit
July 28 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 49, falls from his horse while hunting at Constantinople and dies soon afterward. He has reigned since 408, mostly under the domination of his Christian sister Pulcheria, who has been allowed to return to court (see 441).
Marcian orders the execution (or assassination) of the unpopular court eunuch Chrysaphius. He discontinues the tribute payments to Attila.
All the Temples of Aphrodisias (City of Goddess Aphrodite) are demolished and its libraries burned down. The city is renamed Stauroupolis (City of the Cross).
June – Attila approaches Aurelianum (modern Orléans) and the city's inhabitants close the gates, forcing him to lay siege. After learning of the Hun invasion, Flavius Aetius (magister militum) moves quickly from Italy into Gaul, and joins forces with Visigoth king Theodoric I.[citation needed]
June 20 – Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (Châlons): Attila avoids a pitched battle near Orléans, and withdraws to the Catalaunian Plains (Champagne-Ardenne). The Roman coalition defeats the Huns, but Theodoric I is killed in the encounter. This is one of the last military victories of the Western Roman Empire, before the victories of Emperor Majorian against the Alemanni, Visigoths, Suebi and Burgundians, between 457 and 461.[citation needed]
May 26 – Battle of Vartanantz: King Yazdegerd II defeats the Armenian army (66,000 men) under their rebel leader Vartan Mamikonian on the Avarayr Plain (Armenia). Despite the loss of Mamikonian, who is killed, the Armenians consider this battle to have been a moral and religious victory, since Yazdegerd, out of respect for their efforts, allows them to remain Christian. The anniversary is a national and religious holiday.[citation needed]
Yazdegerd II issues a decree to abolish the Shabbat, and orders the execution of Jewish leaders, including the Exilarch.[citation needed]
Rome is threatened by Attila but not attacked, due to a last-minute effort by Leo I. Threatened by news of reinforcements from the Eastern Roman Empire and the plague breaking out among the Huns, Attila is persuaded to withdraw.
July – Empress Pulcheria dies of natural causes at Constantinople.[3] She has commissioned many new churches in the city during her reign. Her death leaves Flavius Aspar (magister militum) as the dominant influence on her husband, Marcian.[4]
Attila the Hun is found dead in bed, after a wedding feast with the Goth princess Ildica. He dies of a nosebleed at his Hungarian stronghold, drowning in his own blood at age 47 (approximate).[7][8][9] The Huns celebrate a strava (lamentation) over his burial place with great feasting. Attila's son Ellac is appointed successor, which his brothers Dengizich and Ernakh refuse, dividing the Hunnic Empire.
Ankō obtains the throne of his father Ingyō after the traditional order of succession and becomes the 20th emperor of Japan. His eldest brother Kinashi commits suicide, after being accused of an incestuous relationship with his sister Karu no Ōiratsume (according to the Nihon Shoki).
May 31 – Maximus is stoned to death by an angry mob while fleeing Rome. A widespread panic occurs when many citizens hear the news that the Vandals are plundering the Italian mainland.
June 2 – Sack of Rome: King Genseric leads the Vandals into Rome, after he has promised Pope Leo I not to burn and plunder the city. Genseric sacks the city for a period of two weeks. Eudoxia and her daughters, Eudocia and Placidia, are taken hostage. The loot is sent to the harbour of Ostia and loaded into ships, from whence the Vandals depart and return to Carthage.
July 9 – Avitus is proclaimed Roman emperor at Toulouse, and later recognised by the Gallic chiefs in Viernum (near Arles).
September 21 – Avitus enters Rome with a Gallic army. He restores the imperial authority in Noricum (modern Austria) and leaves a Gothic force under Remistus, Visigoth general (magister militum), at Ravenna.
Skandagupta succeeds Kumaragupta I as ruler of the Gupta Empire (India). During his reign he crushes the Hun invasion; however, the expense of the wars drains the empire's resources and contributes to its decline.
Barter economy replaces organized trade as Romans and other citizens desert their towns for the countryside, where they will be less vulnerable to barbarian raids (approximate date).
March – Emperor Marcian sends an embassy to Carthage, to end the Vandal raids in the Mediterranean from their strongholds in North Africa, and quells disturbances on the Armenian frontier.
Summer – Capua is destroyed by the Vandals. Ricimer is unable to end piracy in the western Mediterranean. Backed by his popularity, he gains the consent of the Senate for an expedition against Avitus.
October 28 – The Visigoths brutally sack the Suebi's capital of Braga (modern Portugal); churches are burnt to the ground. Rechiar flees wounded from the battlefield.
The Anglo-Saxons call the British nobles to a peace conference at Stonehenge, but turn on them and massacre almost everyone (approximate date).
Asiaedit
After a 10-year reign, Emperor Ankō is assassinated by the 10-year-old Mayowa no Ōkimi (prince Mayowa), in retaliation for the execution of his father. He is succeeded by his brother Yūryaku who becomes the 21st emperor of Japan.
Summer – The Vandals land in Campania, at the mouth of the Liri or the Garigliano River, and devastate the region. Majorian personally leads the Roman army and defeats the invaders near Sinuessa, destroying their ships on the seashore, loaded with booty.
Winter – Majorian enters the Rhone Valley, and defeats the Burgundians under King Gondioc at Lugdunum. He forces the Bagaudae to join the western coalition against the Suebi in Spain.
^Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation, (Indiana University Press, 1994), 23.
^DelCogliano, Mark (2022). "Acts of the Council of Calcedon (451): Selected Proceedings and the Chalcodon Definition". The Cambridge Edition of Early Christian Writings: Volume 4, Christ: Chalcedon and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-1-31651-114-5.
^Blazeski, Goran (2017-12-23). "Attila the Hun is Believed to have Died of a Nosebleed on his Wedding Night | The Vintage News". thevintagenews. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
^"8 Things You Might Not Know About Attila the Hun". HISTORY. 2023-06-01. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
^Vaibhav. "Visigothic Kingdom of Europe - Kingdom of Toulouse". Retrieved 2023-06-30.
^ ab"List of Rulers of Korea". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
^Rose, Hugh James (April 25, 2024). A new general biographical dictionary, Volume 2. p. 398.
^ abCroke, Brian (1978). "The date and circumstances of Marcian's decease". Byzantion. 48: 5–9. JSTOR 44170550.
^Nathan, Geoffrey S. (1998). "Roman Emperors – DIR Marcian". www.roman-emperors.org. Archived from the original on 6 July 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
^Bury, John Bagnell (1958). History of the Later Roman Empire: from the death of Theodosius I to the death of Justinian. Dover books. Vol. 1. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-20398-0.
^Timothy Barnes, "Review: Late Roman Prosopography: Between Theodosius and Justinian", Phoenix, vol. 37, no. 3 (1983), pp. 268–269
^Brayley, Edward Wedlake (1808). The Beauties of England and Wales; or, Original Delineations Topographical, Historical and Descriptive of Each Country. Vol.VII. London: Thomas Maiden Sherbourn-Lane. p. 416. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
^ abPourshariati, Parvaneh (2008). Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. p. 70. ISBN 978-1-84511-645-3.
^Shahbazi, A. Shapur (2004). "Hormozd III". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume XII/5: Homosexuality III–Human migration II. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 465–466. ISBN 978-0-933273-79-5.
^Bonner, Michael (2020). The Last Empire of Iran. New York: Gorgias Press. p. 124. doi:10.31826/9781463240516. ISBN 978-1-4632-0616-1. S2CID 219805346.
^Blackburn, Bonnie J.; Holford-Strevens, Leofranc (1999). The Oxford Companion to the Year. Oxford University Press. p. 793. ISBN 978-0-19-214231-3.
^"List of Rulers of Korea". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
^"Theodoric | king of Italy | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
^Skidmore, Joel (2010). The Rulers of Palenque(PDF) (Fifth ed.). Mesoweb Publications. p. 18. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
^Chryssavgis, John (March 2017). John Climacus From the Egyptian Desert to the Sinaite Mountain. Taylor & Francis. p. 160. ISBN 9781351925211. Retrieved 12 November 2023.