Category: Bible Timeline Chart

The ancient city of Baghdad is located near the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, near the ancient (and once-great) Mesopotamian cities of Babylon, Kish, and Eshnunna. Baghdad was one of the oldest cities in Mesopotamia, but it was not until the rise of Abbasid caliphate (750-1258) that the city became the center of the Islamic world. Baghdad is listed as the Abbasid Capital on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History in 762 AD.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

The Umayyad Caliphate established the Syrian city of Damascus as their capital in 661 AD during the reign of Caliph Mu’awiya who found the city ideal for a number of reasons. First, Damascus sat on a fertile land with its back near the Hejaz region where the holy cities of Medina and Mecca are located. It was also located near the Arab heartland where the Umayyad rulers could easily call on their soldiers whenever the Byzantines harassed them or whenever they wanted to raid the Byzantine cities.

The family’s rule unraveled less than ninety years later during the reign of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, and Abu al-Abbas, the elected leader of the rebel Banu Hashim clan, ousted them to start the Abbasid caliphate. Al-Abbas was aptly nicknamed as As-Saffah (the Slaughterer or ‘he who sheds blood’) after his purge of the whole Umayyad clan and his bloody capture of the caliphate. Al-Mansur succeeded As-Saffah as caliph of the Muslims after his brother’s death in 754 AD. As long as he was alive, The Slaughterer never dared set foot in nor rule from Damascus.

Al-Abbas stayed in Kufa (a city in modern-day southern Iraq) because he thought he was safe in his stronghold from the revenge of anyone who survived the purge he masterminded against the Damascus-based Umayyad family. Damascus was also too far from Persia where most of the Abbasids’ supporters were based. The Syrian city was also too near Asia Minor where the Byzantines could easily harass them on land or at sea. The Abbasids focused on an easier eastward expansion into Central Asia, rather than a westward expansion where they encountered defeat many times in the hands of the Byzantines.

Al-Mansur, upon his accession as caliph, immediately looked for a new city on which he would build the Abbasids’ capital, but eliminated Kufa from the list as it was too near the rebellious Shiites and Arab tribesmen. He also removed the possibility of another Abbasid stronghold, Hashimiyah, as it was the base of the fanatical (and troublesome) Rawindis who worshiped him as a god. Another reason that pushed al-Mansur to move out of Kufa was that it was too near Mesopotamia’s desert border with Arabia. He wanted a more well-watered, fertile area that could support the local population.

He traveled north from Jarjaraya to Mosul by way of the Tigris river, and chanced upon the hills of Jabal Hamrin which seemed ideal at first, but eliminated it because food and other supplies were scarce in the area. On the way back to Kufa, al-Mansur saw Baghdad (then a Persian hamlet) located near the west bank of the Tigris. It was well-watered by the Sarat Canal which al-Mansur thought as ideal for his new capital. He had the foundations laid out in 762 AD.

Although it was not as ancient compared to the long-gone cities that once surrounded it, Baghdad was in existence by the time of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. The origin of the city’s name came from the Persian words for ‘a garden’ (bagh) of a person or deity called ‘Dad or Dadwayh.’ ‘Bagh’ was also the name of a local god, while ‘Dad’ meant ‘gift of’; meanwhile, another possibility is that ‘bagh’ meant God and ‘dadh’ meant ‘founded by.’ Some Muslims renamed the circular core of the city as Madinat as-Salam (The City of Peace) because they wanted to disassociate it with any remnant of Baghdad’s pagan past. But the name persisted and the city was known for many centuries and into the modern times as Baghdad.

As much as 100,000 men worked to build the city’s circular core (Madinat as-Salam). By 763 AD, the Abbasid administrative offices were located inside Baghdad. Madinat as-Salam was finished by 766 AD. Baghdad continued to be the Abbasid capital until the arrival of the Mongol horde during the 13th century.

The Maya of Mexico faded into obscurity during the Post-Classic Period. While they continued to exist as a distinct group of people, they never regained their dominance in the area in the years that followed. The Classic Period brought prosperity to the Maya people and resulted in an explosive population growth, but the same prosperity turned on them when they ran out of land to grow their food. Faced with the possibility of starvation, the Maya rulers ordered them to use every inch of available land for agriculture. But it was still not enough, and more people began to starve after a widespread drought set in during the middle of the ninth century. The Maya power in Mexico collapsed between 900 and 1100 AD according to the Bible Timeline Chart with World History.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

It was a free-for-all situation during the early Post-Classic Period and when the food shortage worsened, almost everyone left the Maya cities to survive. Even the Maya noble families were not spared. Many migrated north, while others traveled south to Honduras where they brought with them their agricultural skills.

The Mixtec settled on the cities left vacant by the Maya after their exodus, but they also settled on the lands near the territories of the Zapotec. The collapse of the Maya in Mexico also gave way to the rise and short-lived domination of the Toltecs who were based in the city of Tula. The Toltec Empire lasted until the twelfth century after they, too, experienced drought and starvation. The Maya city of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula survived into the thirteenth century and became a center of pilgrimage until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores in the sixteenth century.

In 662 AD, Heavenly Sovereign Tenji Tennō ordered the courtier Fujiwara no Kamatari to compile the laws of Japan into a single legal code. The result was the Ōmi code (Ōmi Ritsu-Ryo) which contained twenty-two volumes of code and penal law, but the task was left unfinished by the time of Emperor Tenji’s death in 672 AD. His son, Kōbun, succeeded him as emperor. However, it was during the reign of Monmu (Tenji’s grandson) that the compilation of the laws was completed more than thirty years later. The Daiho Legislation is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History around 700 AD.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

Monmu, who was only fourteen years old at the time of his accession, ordered his court to resume the compilation of the laws in 697 AD. The legal code was enacted in 701 AD and named Daiho or Taiho Ritsu-Ryo (Great Treasure) after the discovery of gold in Tsushima in the same year. The code was revised multiple times by a 10-man committee presided by the influential courtier Fujiwara no Fuhito and Duke Awada Mahito. The result of the revision was pared down to eleven volumes of Administrative Code (ritsu) and six volumes of Penal Law (ryo) which were then publicized in the following year. The sections included:

The laws were copied extensively from the Tang Code of China but revised and adapted to suit Japanese traditions (the laws in the ryo were more “Japanese” compared to the ritsu). The Taiho Code was more than just a set of laws as it also reorganized the Yamato polity into two departments: the Jingi-kan or Department of Worship and the Dajo-kan or Department of State. The Department of Worship was in charge of religious ceremonies and the administration of shrines of the native religion; the Department of State was more secular and had a clear hierarchy of ministers and councilors who were ruled over by a chancellor. The Yamato domain was now divided into provinces or kuni which were then divided into districts. Provincial and district governors were in charge of the allotment of land, tax collection, and labor.

The laws in the Taiho Code were updated in 718 AD into the Yōrō Code which the Japanese used until the 15th century. Unfortunately, many portions of the Taiho code were lost. Except for some fragments that could be found in the Yōrō Code.

Early Life and Military Career

Emperor Leo III was born in the city of Germanicea in the kingdom of Commagene (present-day southern Turkey) sometime around 685 AD. His original name was Konon, and he grew up in Thrace after his parents were resettled there from their native homeland in the Mount Taurus region. He entered military service under Justinian II and rapidly rose through the ranks over the years. Leo was familiar with the Muslim threat when he was sent to the regions of Lazica and Alania (in modern Georgia) to lead the defense against the Umayyad invasion under Caliph Al-Walid I. Leo III is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History around 741 AD.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

He became the strategos (general) of the Anatolic theme (province) during the reign of Emperor Anastasios II between 713 AD and 715 AD. Anastasios abdicated in favor of Theodosius III in 715 after a two-year stint as the Byzantine emperor. Leo III conspired with the Armenian general Artabasdos in a coup against Theodosius. From the start, the former emperor was only compelled to fulfill the role of Byzantine ruler. Theodosius was just happy to enter a monastery after the success of Leo’s coup. In return for his support, Leo had his daughter marry Artabasdos and promoted him as the commander of the Opsikion theme.

Second Siege of Constantinople

Emperor Leo III started his reign on the 25th of May in 717 AD. He had no time to waste as the Umayyad navy threatened Constantinople with another invasion (the first siege of Constantinople in 674 AD ended in failure in 678 AD). Leo only had months to prepare the Byzantine navy and army for the invasion before the enemy fleet, led by caliph Sulayman, sailed to the Sea of Marmara. By the time Sulayman’s fleet arrived in the Sea of Marmara on the first of September in 717, an Umayyad army composed of 80,000 men marched from the Middle East to Asia Minor to help them take Constantinople.

The Byzantines first used the “Greek fire” during the First Siege of Constantinople. They used the flamethrower once again during the second Umayyad invasion. It was effective; the result was a massive loss of ships and men on the Umayyad side. Leo was also a good strategist. He removed the chain that guarded the Golden Horn so that the enemy would think that he intended to lure them inside and trap them. The ruse worked, and it forced the enemy ships to sail away to a nearby inlet to take refuge.

The descent of a harsh winter in 717 AD lessened the chances of success of the Umayyad navy and army who were not used to the bitter cold. Admiral Sulayman fell sick and died in the same year; he was then hastily replaced by another admiral from Egypt who brought with him a shipment of additional men, food, and weapons. Among those who came with the new navy were Egyptian Christians who jumped ship the moment they arrived near Constantinople and switched sides to Leo III. They passed on information to the Byzantine emperor who used this to raid the Egyptian ships for food and weapons.

The Byzantines called on their Bulgar allies during the last few months of the siege in 718 AD, and together they attacked the enemy which resulted in a loss of about 20,000 on the Muslim side. The new Umayyad caliph Umar II saw that it was useless to continue the siege and agreed to sign a peace treaty with Leo III. He then recalled his men from the Sea of Marmara on August 15, 718 AD. Only five ships returned to the shores of the Levant after a storm destroyed them on the way. Many were also destroyed by a volcano eruption in the Aegean or captured by the Byzantines.

The Muslim army continued to harass the Byzantines on land in the years that followed. They took Cappadocia and besieged Nicaea in 724 AD. Leo faced a bigger Muslim invasion during the last years of his reign as emperor when a 90,000-strong Muslim army invaded much of Asia Minor and took their Byzantine captives to Syria. The emperor, with his son Constantine and their troops, later drove them back to the Levant.

Rebellions and Iconoclasm

Rebellions hounded Emperor Leo in the early years of his reign, with the first one led by a man named Artemius on the island of Sicily. The rebellion happened during the Second Siege of Constantinople, but Leo sent troops to Sicily to quash the revolt when he had a small break from the naval battles with the Muslims. The former Emperor Anastasios II also decided to return to Constantinople and rallied his allies in 719 AD to seize the throne. But the Bulgars who joined his cause abandoned Anastasios during an important battle. He was captured by Leo who later had him executed.

Emperor Leo’s greatest challenge was the prohibition he imposed on the worship of idols after the Second Siege of Constantinople. During the siege, Patriarch Germanos paraded an icon of the Virgin Mary and Child Jesus around the city which made the people believe that it was the icon that helped lift the invasion. Insulted that he was not properly credited as the one who led the successful defense of the city, Leo promptly had the icons all over the Byzantine Empire removed or destroyed. The eruption of the underwater volcano near the island of Thera (which he took as a sign of God’s wrath) and the Muslims’ prohibition of the worship of idols also pushed him to issue this edict.

The first “victim” of Leo’s iconoclasm was the icon of Christ that decorated the Bronze Gate (Chalke) of the Great Palace in Constantinople. He ordered the soldiers to remove it from its usual place. This enraged the crowd that gathered in front of the palace, and a riot subsequently flared up in the city that resulted in the death of one soldier. The members of the mob that committed the riot were arrested and fined. Leo ordered more icons all over the empire to be removed and destroyed. He had a falling out with Pope Gregory II over this issue which resulted in his excommunication; in addition, the edict was not received very well and rejected as blasphemy in many parts of his own empire.

Legacy

Leo was one of the most energetic Byzantine emperors who ruled during a very chaotic period. His army was one of the most disciplined and effective during the early Middle Ages. During his reign, he reformed the justice system and released a handbook called Ecloga which was a summary of laws issued by the former emperors. The book was published in 740 AD and covered diverse topics such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, maritime laws, and agriculture. He did not expand the empire, but he did keep what remained of the Byzantine territories intact during his reign.

He had four children by his wife Maria and one of them, Constantine, succeeded him as emperor. Leo reigned for a total of twenty-four years and died on June 18, 741 AD after an illness.

Justinian was known for his campaigns to reclaim the former Roman territories in Italy and North Africa, but perhaps Justinian was made more famous with his “scandalous” marriage to Theodora and the Nika revolt. Whether he was a great leader or a complete failure according to Byzantine historian Procopius, it remains undeniable that he was one of the most remarkable persons to have lived during that time. He is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History between 527-565 AD.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

Justinian was born in the Illyrian city of Tauresium in 482/3 AD, and he ruled the Byzantine Empire between 527 to 565 AD. His uncles were farmers in Illyria, but they made their way to Constantinople and rose to become soldiers of the empire. One uncle, Justin I, rose to become the emperor of the Byzantine empire in 518 AD and started the Justinian Dynasty that ruled from Constantinople for a total of eighty-two years. Justin adopted his nephew during Justinian’s childhood and brought him to Constantinople to be educated. The young man eventually became a soldier of the empire. He rose through the ranks quickly and by the time he was 30 years old, Justinian was an accomplished military leader. By 521 AD, Justinian received the position of the Consul of the Roman Empire but in the same year, another event would shape his destiny and the way he ruled the Byzantine Empire: he met the future Empress Theodora and fell in love with her immediately.

Theodora

A discussion of Justinian would be incomplete without a mention of Theodora, the woman he fell in love with, married, and crowned as empress. She was as vital to his rule as Emperor as to his personal life, and she rose to such greatness along with her husband during his reign. Theodora’s background was much humbler than Justinian’s; her father was the bear-keeper of the Greens (a faction in the Hippodrome), but he died early during her childhood which left her family destitute. His death left her mother to take care of three young daughters, so she quickly remarried and begged the Greens to give her new husband some job to help support them. The Greens refused, but the Blues saw this opportunity to add another member to their faction and gave Theodora’s stepfather a job. Theodora grew up as an actress, but it meant she also needed to double as a prostitute—an occupation which damaged her reputation and hounded her for life.

Theodora met a Byzantine official during her teens and went with him to North African Pentapolis (in present-day Libya) where he was appointed as governor. She left him when the relationship fell apart. She supported herself through prostitution once again and eventually made her way to Alexandria where she converted to Christianity. The Christianity that she learned in Egypt was Monophysitism (the Greek word monos means ‘one’ while physis means ‘nature’) which asserted that Christ only has one nature and that his divinity had dissolved his human nature/substance. It was considered a heresy by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches. It was also a direct opposition to another popular Christological belief called Nestorianism wherein Christ has a dual nature (both human and divine). However, her new religion steered her away from prostitution. She later moved to Antioch in Asia Minor to stay with her friend and fellow former actress, Macedonia.

Macedonia also left prostitution to work as a spy for Antioch’s state-sanctioned imperial police and she personally wrote letters to Justinian as an informer. Sometime around 521 AD, Justinian visited Macedonia who then introduced the consul to her young friend. The two fell in love, and Theodora accompanied Justinian to Constantinople in 522 AD. It was clear that she did not practice prostitution anymore. The consul promised to marry Theodora, but Emperor Justin I and his wife Euphemia (Justinian’s uncle and aunt) stood in their way because of Theodora’s former profession and monophysitism. The main reason for his aunt and uncle’s opposition to their marriage was Emperor Constantine‘s decree two hundred before that forbade government officials from marrying actresses. This was revoked by Emperor Justin I in 524 AD when his wife Euphemia died. The couple married immediately and by 527 AD, Justinian replaced his uncle as emperor of Byzantium. Theodora was crowned empress in the same year—a far cry from the days when she was destitute and needed to sell her body to survive.

Justinian as Emperor (527-565 AD) and the Nika Revolt

One of Justinian’s first act as an emperor was to put together the confusing mass of laws issued by past emperors and put them together into a single yet understandable code. He assembled a committee, had them rewrite the contradictory laws laid out centuries ago. The result was the Justinian Code that he issued in 529 AD. He also signed a peace treaty with the Persian emperor which was called Eternal Peace. This peace would not last as war flared up between the two empires again eight years later. In addition, Justinian was a man of great ambition and for much of his reign, he waged wars in Italy, Spain, and North Africa to conquer what were once parts of the greater Roman Empire. He needed money to fund for these conquests, so he raised taxes imposed upon the people which earned their anger over the years.

One event, however, marked his early reign, and this was the Nika revolt. Two factions—the Blues and the Greens—competed in the dominance of the entertainment in the Hippodrome. The citizens of Constantinople were divided in their support for these factions (Justinian himself supported the Blues, as was Empress Theodora who, in her childhood, resented the treatment her family received from the Greens after her father’s death). The rivalry went beyond the Hippodrome as it was rumored that the wealthier people supported the blues while, the less affluent supported the Greens. Their rivalry over the years turned bitter and many times so bloody that by 532 AD, the city was ripe for a violent revolt.

Two men—one from the Blues and the other from the Greens—were supposed to be hanged after a relatively minor riot in Constantinople but the torture of the men and a couple of botched executions had angered the crowd. The crowd rioted and set fire to many buildings in Constantinople, including the Church of the Holy Wisdom, government buildings, palaces, and marketplace. They also killed many people on the streets while shouting, “Nika!” and forced Justinian, Theodora, as well as their courtiers to hide in the palace in hopes that the riot would just fade away. It did not burn itself out, so Justinian decided to flee into a nearby city if not for his wife, Theodora, who convinced him to stay and face the people. For Theodora, it was better to die as an empress than go back to her former life.

Justinian realized his wife was right and immediately ordered the general Belisarius and his Illyrian troops to contain the rioters in the Hippodrome. They devised a plan to kill all the rioters inside the Hippodrome and succeeded in slaughtering 30,000 people in one night. The bloody end of the Nika revolt would sear the psyche of the people of Constantinople for many years, and no one challenged Justinian for the remainder of his reign.

The Aftermath: Reconquest of Italy, Gaul, North Africa, and Hispania

Justinian implemented a large-scale recovery program for Constantinople which included the reconstruction of new churches and government buildings. He also embarked on a campaign to reclaim the territories now occupied by the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Franks. He sent his trusted general Belisarius to North Africa to counter the Vandals who had occupied Carthage years before. After the death of the great Vandal leader Geiseric, the tribe had fallen to disunity and had neglected the defense of Carthage. Belisarius took Carthage easily when the new Vandal leader fled from the city and the inhabitants themselves opened the city gates to the Byzantine forces in 533 AD.

In 535 AD, Justinian sent Belisarius to wrest Italy from the Ostrogothic monarchy whose rule was in itself on the verge of collapse. He reclaimed Sicily easily in the same year, but it would take another four years for the Byzantines to get rid of the Ostrogoth King Witigis and capture the Italian capital Ravenna. With Belisarius’ victory, Justinian was worried that his general would usurp the throne of Italy, so he recalled the brilliant man from the peninsula and back into Constantinople. Belisarius complied and went back to Constantinople with the captive Ostrogoth king while many of his men remained in Italy to guard the northern border from invading tribes.

The Justinian Plague

Meanwhile, the Eternal Peace Justinian and the Persian king Khosrau negotiation fell apart in 541 after the Byzantine king failed to pay the annual tribute he promised eight years ago. Justinian sent Belisarius once again to the Near East to counter Khosrau, but something more malevolent arrived on the shores of the city that would wipe out a great portion of its population. A mysterious sickness arrived via a ship from Egypt that carried Constantinople’s grain. Many people fell sick days after the ship docked. It was the start of the bubonic plague that raged in the city for three months and killed as much as much as ten thousand a day, according to Procopius of Caesarea.

Even Justinian himself was not spared from the plague, and buboes grew from his body when he fell sick. He recovered later, but as much as 200,000 people in Constantinople alone ended up dead by the time the plague had burned itself out in 543 AD. It also reached the Persian capital of Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia and spread toward the Frankish territory where it also ran its course on the people who lived there. The plague temporarily sidelined Khosrau to Ctesiphon. Persia then came back to Asia Minor and besieged the city of Edessa. The citizens of Edessa effectively defended the city when they worked together and poured oil onto the invading Persian army that dared scale the city walls. The Persians retreated after a negotiation and Justinian after his health returned, was free to recover the Western Roman territories.

Return to the Western Campaigns and Death

Justinian sent more troops to Italy to reinforce the ones left behind by general Belisarius. But this time, they were led by a eunuch-general named Narses. Italy fell to the hands of the Ostrogoths once again. Justinian did not have enough men to counter the threat, so he hired Lombard and Gepid warriors to help general Narses. The barbarian mercenaries were promised land in Pannonia to settle in in exchange for their skills as warriors and with this reward in mind, they successfully drove out the Ostrogoths from Italy. After the battle for domination in the peninsula, Justinian established a governor in Ravenna to rule on his behalf and then wrested Hispania from the Visigoths in 552 AD.

Belisarius and Justinian died in 565 AD after their brief spat because of the emperor’s insecurity. Justinian had his friend imprisoned for some time because he thought the retired general wanted to usurp his throne, but “pardoned” Belisarius before their death. Theodora had died earlier in 548 AD. The couple had no children so his nephew Justin replaced Justinian as emperor.

Patrimonium Petri (also known as Patrimonium Sancti Petri or Patrimony of Saint Peter) refers to the land holdings of the Holy Sea in the Italian Peninsula, the surrounding islands, and some portions of North Africa. According to the Bible Timeline Chart with World History, this was begun around 600 AD. Its legal basis was Constantine’s edict issued back in 321 AD wherein he allowed Christians to own and transfer properties—a right denied to them by previous Roman emperors during the early years of Christianity. Constantine himself gave large portions of his estate to the church which was soon followed by donations from Rome’s wealthy families. What remained of the persecutions were abolished when Christianity became Rome’s state religion in 380 AD under Emperor Theodosius I, but most of these donations stopped by 600 AD.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

Most of these land holdings were located within the vicinity of Rome. They gradually spread throughout Italy into the Tuscan Region, Ancona, Osimo, Gaeta, and the areas near Ravenna. The pope also had power over the islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and Sicily which were included in the Patrimonium Petri. The pope had temporal powers over these regions and as Rome’s ruler during the sixth century, the pope was in charge of the distribution of the revenues which were usually used to fund for church repairs, improvement of church decorations, as well as for disaster relief programs. The hard task of keeping the city’s less fortunate citizens and the incoming refugees fed fell on the shoulders of the pope, and the funds used to buy food came from the Patrimonium Petri estates. The highest revenues came from the island of Sicily, but this was later confiscated by Emperor Leo III in favor of the Byzantine Empire.

The pope’s land holdings increased over the years when Italy’s noble families died out or had fled to take refuge in the Byzantine territories during the invasion of the Lombards. These estates grew until the middle of the eighth century and were sometimes sandwiched between Byzantine territories and Lombard duchies. When Italy completely disintegrated in the late eighth century, the Patrimonium Petri consisted only of the Papal States which became the future popes’ own little kingdom.

Ravenna is a city located in northeastern Italy along the Adriatic coast. It was first inhabited by Italic peoples, and they were soon followed by the Etruscans, Gauls, and Romans by the 2nd century BC. The city’s location along the Adriatic coast made it an ideal harbor for ships that came in from the Mediterranean in the ancient times but by 402 AD, the emperor Honorius made Ravenna the Western Roman Empire’s capital to escape the barbarian invasion in Mediolanum (Milan). The marshes that surrounded the city made it initially difficult for various barbarian invaders to break through the city walls, although it was breached by barbarians a number of times during the Medieval Period. The Exarch of Ravenna ruled from 476 – 538 AD where it is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Chart with World History.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

The Lombards in Italy

It was the Western Empire’s capital from 402 AD to 476 AD, but it finally fell to the barbarians during the reign of King Odoacer and Theodoric the Great. By 551 AD, the Lombards ended the Ostrogoth domination of Italy and continued their push toward the southern part of the country. These barbarians first started out as mercenaries hired by general Narses during the war with the Ostrogoths and they were promised land in Pannonia in exchange for their skills in the battlefield.

Once they had settled in Pannonia, they found that the land was already overpopulated by other barbarian tribes, and they needed to move out if they were to survive. The Lombards, led by fierce warrior-king Alboin, turned west to the rich but ravaged land of Italy. They stopped at nothing to get the land they needed. They first took the cities in the Liguria region including Milan and Pavia but failed to take Ravenna, Rome, and other fortified cities in Italy. After the death of Alboin in 572 AD, the cities in the Italian peninsula (except for Ravenna, Rome, and others still held by the Byzantine Empire) crumbled into various duchies ruled by its own Lombard duke.

Exarchate of Ravenna

Ravenna proved resilient and withstood the Lombard invasion for many years. It remained the only place where the Byzantines still held power and the city became an exarchate—a place where the Byzantine emperor Maurice ruled through his representative, the exarch.  The exarch initially had full command of the troops loyal to Byzantium, but over the years, his responsibilities expanded to the administrative, judicial, and religious branches of the city. He had unlimited power over Ravenna, as well as the towns from the southern border of Venice and to the coastal city of Rimini. The Byzantine-allied dukes and Magister militum who governed other cities submitted to his authority. Except for the Lombard dukes who ruled Spoleto, Benevento, and Pavia. The threat of the Vandals also pushed the emperor to establish the Exarchate of Africa later on.

The conflict over iconoclasm that started in Constantinople spilled over to Italy in 727 AD and a bloody revolution over the icons in Italy ended with the death of Ravenna’s Exarch Paul and his followers. Eutychius replaced Paul as the exarch. He ruled the city until the Lombards completely captured Ravenna in 751 AD. The position of the exarch also ended in the same year.

The Franks entered Roman history just as the empire was on the brink of destruction. They were a part of the foederati—Germanic allies of the Romans who first appeared during the time of Julian the Apostate at a time when the empire faced the Persian threat in the east and barbarian invasions in the west. Julian knew that it would be disastrous for the Roman army to face both enemies at the same time, so he came up with a solution that would benefit them all: he allowed the Franks and other Germanic tribes to settle in some portions of Gaul (as well as claim the privilege of Roman citizenship and all the rights that came with it) and in exchange, foederati warriors would fight as Roman soldiers. The Franconian Kingdom lasted from 487 to 843 AD as recorded on the Bible  Timeline Chart with World History.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

Merovingian Dynasty

The Franks were made up of smaller groups which were led by their own chieftains, but the tribe was ultimately led by the more powerful, long-haired Salian Franks. One of the greatest Salian kings was Merovech, a semi-legendary Frankish king who fought with the Romans and the Goths against Attila the Hun during the height of the Hunnic invasion. What remained of the fragile Roman domination in Gaul was erased by the Salian Franks in 457 AD. In the same year, they established a dynasty which they named Merovingian (after king Merovech). He was succeeded by his son Childeric who further strengthened the Frankish domination over Gaul versus Saxon and Alemanni invaders, as well as the last of the Western Roman kings.

Childeric’s son, Clovis, succeeded him as king. He spent the next ten years taking territory after territory from neighboring tribes. He married the Christian Burgundian princess Clotilde in 493 AD. She was instrumental in Clovis’ conversion from paganism to Christianity during a battle against the Alemanni. Just like the Emperor Constantine many years ago, Clovis prayed to and bargained with Christ for victory against the Alemanni and in return, he would convert to Christianity. The prayer was effective and the Alemanni surrendered to the Franks soon after. Mass conversion of Franks to Christianity soon followed and the new religion would hold them together as a new nation.

Clovis defeated the Arian Visigoth king Alaric II in the Battle of Vouillé and captured the city of Toulouse in 507 AD. The weakened Visigoths abandoned the city and fled to Hispania. The intervention of the Ostrogothic royal family and their troops drove the Franks out of the Visigoth’s Mediterranean territory of Septimania. To celebrate his victory over the Visigoths and his near-total domination of Gaul, Clovis established a new city as his capital: Lutetia Parisiorium, which would later become the present-day Paris. He also eliminated all other Frankish chieftains to consolidate his power and his sons—as well as the kings who succeeded them—would be known as the princes of the Merovingian dynasty.

King Clovis died in 511 AD and the crown, as well as his territories, passed on to his four sons: Theuderic claimed Reims; Childebert ruled Paris; Chlodomer received Orleans, and Chlothar took Soissons. In the years that followed, the three eldest brothers died from violence or illness, which left only the youngest, Chlothar I, as the ruler of the Frankish domain. He died in 561 AD. His territory was up for grabs for his four sons—a remnant of an old tribal rule that Frankish heirs would receive their territories through merit (most of the time, through violent means) and not through inheritance.

The struggle for domination in the Frankish territories took on a new meaning with the arrival of the Visigothic princess Brunhilda and her younger sister Galswintha. In 567 AD, one of Chlothar I’s son, Charibert, died and his territory was seized and divided by his three remaining brothers: Sigebert took Austrasia; Guntram ruled Burgundy, and Chilperic ruled Neustria. Sigebert then decided to strengthen his rule by making an alliance with the Visigoths down in Spain and proposed a marriage between himself and the Visigothic princess Brunhilda to her father, king Athanagild.

When he saw that his brother Sigebert made a formidable alliance with the Visigoths, Chilperic also made an offer to king Athanagild for the younger princess Galswintha. Eager to make another alliance with a powerful king up north, Athanagild sent Galswintha to her groom but this was a mistake she would later pay dearly with her life. Chilperic married a woman named Fredegund some time earlier, but he conveniently sent her out of the Neustrian court to accommodate his new wife. Apparently, Fredegund was still very much present in the king’s life and to Galswintha’s dismay, Fredegund freely entered the palace and showed up inside Chilperic’s chambers. The Visigothic princess was found dead in her room one day and rumors swirled around the kingdom that Chilperic and Fredegund arranged Galswintha’s death.

War broke out between Neustria and Austrasia when news of Galswintha’s death reached Queen Brunhilda. This went on for seven years and the situation worsened when Fredegund hired assassins to poison Sigebert in Austrasia. The assassins successfully carried out this mission, which left Brunhilda in charge of Austrasia as a regent for her young son Childebert II. To enlarge their territory, Queen Brunhilda also persuaded the heirless Guntram of Burgundy to leave his kingdom to her son after his death and she proved to be a good ruler of both courts.

Meanwhile in Neustria, Chilperic died and Fredegund rose to rule his kingdom upon his death. He died without an heir, but some time later, Fredegund announced that she was pregnant with Chilperic’s son, Chlothar II. Childebert II also received the kingdom of Burgundy upon Guntram’s death and he ruled it (plus Austrasia) with his mother. When Childebert II died, his mother once again assumed the position of regent for her young grandchildren who divided Burgundy and Austrasia between them. Chlothar II and her mother Fredegund took advantage of Childebert’s death and tried to take Paris but were unsuccessful; Fredegund died later and her son was left to rule Neustria on his own.

It seemed that Brunhilda’s “meddling” became too much for one of her grandchildren as Theudebert II threw her out of the kingdom after he was proclaimed king of Austrasia. She sought refuge in Burgundy, in the court of her younger grandchild Theuderic II and once again dominated the Burgundian court. She masterminded several assassinations of noblemen and officials, as well as meddled in Theuderic’s marriage to a Visigothic princess. Theuderic was exasperated and he was eager to get rid of his grandmother for good, but could not do something about it. Instead, he joined forces with his cousin Chlothar of Neustria and went to war against his brother, Theudebert of Austrasia. The cousins invaded Austrasia, killed the king’s son, and imprisoned Theudebert, while Brunhilda later had Theudebert killed in prison in revenge for driving her out of Austrasia.

Nobody benefited from all the scheming and violence in the end as Theuderic died without an heir less than a year after the invasion. Brunhilda was also executed by Chlothar II after Austrasia and Burgundy’s mayors of the palace (Warnachar and Rado) invited him into the kingdoms to prevent the old queen from recovering her power. With Brunhilda gone, Chlothar now ruled all three Frankish kingdoms but the mayors of the palace worked out a deal with him that allowed them to rule each kingdom independently. In 615 AD, Chlothar issued the Edict of Paris, a law that proved to be disastrous for the Merovingian dynasty as it included conditions that the king was not allowed to meddle in the affairs of the mayors of the palace and that they could not be kicked out from their positions. Through the Edict of Paris, Chlothar essentially gave away most of his powers over Burgundy and Austrasia.

Change of Hands: The Kingdom Under the Mayors of the Palace

The Neustrian king Chlothar sought to establish a presence in Austrasia by installing his son Dagobert as king of Austrasia, but the real power was in the hands of the mayor of the palace: Pepin the Elder. After Chlothar died, a younger son named Charibert attempted to rule Neustria but was thwarted by his brother Dagobert who later had him assassinated  in Aquitaine. He continued to rule all three territories until his death in 639 AD; Neustria and Burgundy were then passed on to his son Clovis II while Sigebert III took Austrasia. But the position of the mayor of the palace also became hereditary after Pepin the Elder passed it down to his son Grimoald—a departure from the rule that the mayors of the palace should be appointed by the king.

Grimoald turned out to be more ambitious than his father when started to convince the Merovingian king Sigebert III to adopt his son, but this plot was thwarted upon the birth of Sigebert’s son. When Sigebert died, Grimoald organized a coup and banished the dead king’s heir, Dagobert II, to a monastery in England; he then declared his son (later named as Childebert the Adopted) as the ruler of Austrasia. This gave Clovis II of Neustria and Burgundy an excuse to invade Austrasia; Grimoald and the unfortunate usurper Childebert were executed during the invasion.

The banished Dagobert II never got the chance to reclaim his throne after Clovis II declared himself king of Austrasia and appointed his own official, Erchinoald, the mayor of the palace. The throne of Neustria, Austrasia, and Burgundy passed on to Clovis’ very young sons and for the rest of their reigns, the kings remained only as mere puppets (roi fainéant) for the more-powerful mayors of the palace.

Pepin II of Herstal, Pepin the Elder’s grandson, became the mayor of the palace in 680 AD after the death of the Merovingian ruler of Austrasia. He became the ruler of Austrasia since the throne was vacant and he shrewdly refused to elect another candidate for the king’s role. This was an act which provoked the Merovingian ruler of Neustria, Theuderic III who immediately organized an invasion into Austrasia. His troops were defeated by Pepin’s army and Theuderic was forced to concede the position of mayor of the palace of all three Frankish kingdoms to Pepin.

Now, nothing stood in Pepin’s way and he promptly crowned himself the duke and prince of the Franks. Although the Merovingians still ruled Neustria and Burgundy, it was Pepin alone who held all the real power over the Frankish lands. His death in 714 AD left the position of the mayor of the palace vacant (his legitimate sons died before him) but Charles Martel, an illegitimate son born to his concubine, contested the claim of Plectrude, Pepin’s legitimate wife, that her young grandsons should inherit the position. Plectrude had Charles imprisoned to prevent him from becoming the mayor of the palace, but he escaped and spent the years that followed fighting Plectrude and other claimants for the position.

It was not until 717 AD that he eliminated all other claimants to the position and succeeded as mayor of the palace. Charles Martel also went on to lead the combined forces of Aquitanian and Frankish forces to defeat the Arab-Berber army in the Battle of Tours-Poitiers in 732. By 737 AD, the Merovingian puppet king he appointed years before had died and Charles Martel was the sole ruler of the Frankish kingdom.

After Charles’ death in 741 AD, his sons Carloman and Pepin the Younger rose as mayors of the palace. Unlike the Merovingian brothers before them, the siblings did not go to war for territories as Carloman relinquished his kingdom, had himself consecrated as a monk, and spent the rest of his life in the monastery of Monte Cassino. In 751, Pepin removed the last of the Merovingian king from the throne and declared himself the king of the Frankish kingdom. He sent the deposed Merovingian king, Childeric III, to a monastery where he died years later and marked the end of the domination of the Merovingian dynasty.

Carolingian Dynasty

Pepin the Younger died in 768 AD and the territories were divided between his sons Charles (Charlemagne) and Carloman. The realm was now divided into two: Charles ruled the northern section of the land and Carloman ruled the southern portion that bordered Al-Andalus. Charles also strengthened his rule with his marriage to a Lombard princess but discarded his first wife for a thirteen-year-old Alemanni girl after one year. His brother, Carloman, died in 771 AD which meant that Charles was now the sole ruler of the Frankish empire.

Charlemagne subdued the Saxons in 772 AD and ended the domination of the Lombards in Italy in the years that followed. He sent the Lombard king Desiderius to a monastery (a punishment the Frankish rulers seemed to favor) and crowned himself king of Lombard Italy in its capital Pavia. He made an ill-advised treaty with the administrator of Al-Andalus in an effort to take back the city of Zaragoza from the Muslims, but Charlemagne and his troops were forced to march back to Frankish lands in humiliation after the administrator changed his mind. He besieged the Vascones who lived on the rugged Pyrenees in his humiliation, but he paid the price for his miscalculation when his troops were massacred by the tribe in revenge as they marched home. The loss of his men was so devastating that he never ventured south into Al-Andalus for the rest of his life.

Charlemagne was involved in a conflict with the Byzantine empress Irene after she broke off the engagement of her son Constantine VI to the Frankish king’s daughter Rotrude. In a bid to strengthen his own rule, Pope Leo crowned Charlemagne as the emperor and Augustus of Rome. This  was a direct hit to Empress Irene who, as ruler of the Byzantines, claimed to be the rightful and legitimate heir of Rome and its former territories. The empress could do nothing and Charlemagne claimed more of Europe in the years that followed. His realm spanned from Sweden in the north to the border of Al-Andalus in the southern end, as well as the former territories of the Lombards in Italy. Before his death, he divided the kingdom between his sons but all except Louis the Pious (the ruler of Aquitaine) had died by 813 AD. Louis found himself the sole ruler of the vast Frankish kingdom consolidated by his father after his death.

Louis the Pious had planned to snip off some lands from Lothair’s (one of his sons by his first wife) domain so he could give them to a younger, more favored son by his second wife. Furious, Lothair and his brothers united against their father and the civil war which raged between them for three years unraveled all of Charlemagne’s efforts to unite the Frankish land. Louis was forced to make concessions to his other sons and left the reduced domain of Neustria to his child by his second wife, Charles the Bald, when he died in 840 AD. Civil war once again erupted between the brothers and they were forced to divide the land once again in 843 AD in the Treaty of Verdun.

Early Life

Few Roman emperors received the title “The Great” and one of them was the Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great. He was born in the 454 AD in Pannonia where he is listed on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History. This was a period when the Western Roman Empire was on the brink of collapse. The Ostrogoth people that his father, King Theodemir ruled, were restless and hungry because of their overcrowded conditions and lack of available land that they could farm. They were also besieged by other tribes in the area which pushed them to venture outside of Pannonia and into the Eastern Roman’s Empire’s territories in search of land and food.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

When Theodoric reached seven years old, he was taken to Constantinople as a hostage to guarantee that the Ostrogoths would stop all raids on the Eastern empire’s territory. In Constantinople, Theodoric received the best education the Eastern Romans could provide, and the young Ostrogoth excelled in administration and military strategies. Later, he returned to his people in Pannonia at age eighteen and was sent back by Emperor Leo with great gifts.

Theodoric wasted no time and joined his father in a battle against the Sarmatian king Babai upon his return. Theodoric also led 6,000 Ostrogoth warriors to besiege the city of Singidunum and later joined his father in the invasion of the cities of Naissus, Ulpiana, Heraclea, and Larissa. But Theodemir decided to continue south to the Greek city of Thessalonica after he was dissatisfied with their plundered goods. To prevent a full-scale invasion, the Roman general who governed Thessalonica brokered a truce with the Ostrogoths with a provision that he would hand over some territories for the invaders. The Ostrogoths happily went on their way after they received this treaty and settled on their new lands. Theodemir died after an illness in 475 AD.

Theodoric: King of Ostrogoths and Romans in Italy

Before his death, Theodemir appointed his son Theodoric as king of the Ostrogoths. Upon Theodoric’s accession as king, Emperor Zeno invited him to Constantinople and the new Ostrogoth ruler was received in the city with great honors. Zeno also appointed him as Magister militum (Master of the Soldiers) in 483 AD and Theodoric served as consul the following year. Theodoric returned to the Ostrogoth territory in 488 AD, but the restless and hungry tribe remained a threat to Emperor Zeno. The Eastern Roman emperor was also worried that Odoacer had grown more powerful in Italy after he removed the last Roman emperor of the west from his throne.

Zeno decided to solve the Ostrogoth’s overwhelming need for land and food, as well as the problem of Odoacer with one idea: he sent Theodoric West to remove the usurper from the throne and allowed the Ostrogoths to settle in Italy. Theodoric agreed to this plan and rallied a ragtag army made up of Huns, Ostrogoths, and Roman mercenaries who helped him besiege the Western Roman capital of Ravenna. It had taken three years of fighting before Odoacer and Theodoric were able to reach a truce, and both agreed to rule the west as co-emperors. As both men and their warriors celebrated the treaty, Theodoric killed Odoacer and started to rule Italy alone.

Theodoric married his way to alliances with other Germanic tribes during much of his reign. He married the Frankish princess Audofleda (sister of King Clovis I) as a way to build an alliance with the Franks, but tensions between the two tribes continued even after the union of the two. Theodoric also married his daughters (by his Moesian concubine) to Alaric, king of the Visigoths, and Sigismund, king of Burgundy. He gave his daughter Amalaesuntha to Eutharic of the Amali Dynasty of Visigothic Spain, while his sister married Thrasamund, king of the Vandals. Another daughter also married the king of the Thuringians.

Legacy

Theodoric ruled for 33 years, and his reign was generally peaceful, but his powers as king were severely limited. For example, the Goths were forbidden to legally marry Roman citizens, and he did not have the power to appoint Goths to any position in the government. They were Arian Christians and were considered as heretics by the Romans who believed in Catholicism. Theodoric also prohibited the Romans from carrying weapons and Goths were the only ones allowed to enlist in the army—a departure from the discrimination the Goths faced during the reign of earlier Roman emperors. To Theodoric’s credit, he pursued fairness in the treatment between Goths and Romans and appealed to his fellow Goths to treat the Roman citizens fairly.

Before his death, Theodoric proclaimed his 10-year old grandson Athalaric (the son of Alaric and Amalaesuntha) as king of the Ostrogoths in Italy.

End of the Visigoth Rule in Hispania

In 711 AD, a large group of Arabs and Berbers led by their Berber commander Tariq ibn Ziyad landed where Europe and Africa met in Gibraltar. Hispania was ruled at that time by a Visigothic elite who wrested the power from the weakened Roman empire less than 200 years earlier. The Hispania that the Visigoth King Ruderic ruled was wracked with civil wars and on the verge of disintegration when the Muslims landed in Gibraltar. The Muslims took the residents by surprise when they launched the first coastal raids, but they quickly turned this into a large-scale invasion after they took advantage of the cracks in the Visigoths’ rule. Their initial entry into Spain was also aided by Ruderic’s rival, the Count Julian, who held a personal grudge against the king. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History between 711 – 722 AD.

These Articles are Written by the Publishers of The Amazing Bible Timeline
Quickly See 6000 Years of Bible and World History Together

Unique Circular Format – see more in less space.
Learn facts that you can’t learn just from reading the Bible
Attractive design ideal for your home, office, church …

Limited Time Offer! Find out more now! >

Ruderic mustered all the men he could find to defend his territory, but he was killed during the Battle of Guadalete on July 19, 711 AD. The Visigoths’ defeat was devastating—the battle not only killed Ruderic, but also wiped out almost all of the noblemen who might rule Spain after his death. With no else strong enough to put up any resistance against the invasion, the Arabs, along with their Berber allies, rapidly advanced north and conquered most of the southern and central Spain within seven years. It became the province of Al-Andalus and administered by the North African governor.

Tariq was recalled by the caliph Sulayman to Syria in the year 714. This left the Arab commander Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa ibn Nusayr as governor of Al-Andalus, who then established the city of Seville as the capital of the province. He married Ruderic’s widow, Egilona, in 718 and she converted to Islam in the same year. He was later assassinated after rumors that he converted to Christianity reached the caliph.

Byzantine Resistance

When it looked like that the Islamic expansion was unstoppable, the Byzantines in Asia Minor proved to be more resilient than their western Mediterranean neighbor. They held out for a little longer with the help of the strategic defence and capable leadership under Emperor Leo III during a naval battle in the Arabs’ Siege of Constantinople. His forces were also reinforced by the Bulgarian allies. The Byzantines successfully defended the city until the death of Sulayman in 717.

The Kingdom of Asturias

It seemed the Visigoth resistance did not die out with its last king Ruderic. In 718 AD, a Visigoth named Pelagius (Pelayo) retreated north to Asturias and established a kingdom on the northern remnants of Christian Spain. Asturias’ rugged mountainous terrain made it difficult for the Arabs and Berbers to successfully conquer all of the Iberian peninsula, and the region became the last bastion of Christianity in Spain. The Arabs and Berbers managed to slip through Southern France and arrived at the Duchy of Aquitaine. They were defeated by the Frankish duke Odo, who killed the governor of Al-Andalus in the Battle of Toulouse (721 AD). The dead governor was replaced with a man named Al-Ghafiqi, and the Asturian King Pelagius led a successful rebellion against the Muslims in 722 AD.