5th century

◍ Open on the globe

401 – 500 · 14 events

What happened around the world

Europe

410 Sack of Rome by the Visigoths — Alaric sacks Rome, the first foreign capture in 800 years
451 Battle of the Catalaunian Plains — Aetius and the Visigoths stop Attila in Gaul
476 Fall of the Western Roman Empire — Odoacer deposes the last emperor and Antiquity ends
c. 496 Baptism of Clovis — The Frankish king turns Catholic, laying a base for France

Middle East

c. 405 Mesrop Mashtots creates the Armenian alphabet — A script made for the Bible, still in use 1,600 years on
c. 500 Completion of the Babylonian Talmud — Judaism's central text after the Bible took shape in Iraq

Africa

439 Vandals capture Carthage — Geiseric seizes Rome's richest grain province

Asia

414 The Gwanggaeto Stele — A six-metre chronicle of a Goguryeo king's conquests
c. 427 Founding of Nalanda — A university that drew students from all over Asia
c. 460 The paintings of the Ajanta Caves — Masterpieces found by a British officer hunting a tiger
c. 477 The rock palace of Sigiriya — A parricide king builds his palace on top of a rock
499 Aryabhatiya — A young astronomer computes π and says the Earth spins

Americas

c. 431 Ilopango eruption — Ash smothers the southern Maya lands and empties villages
c. 500 Rise of Tiwanaku — A city by Lake Titicaca nearly four kilometres up

Who ruled

Franks and France: Clovis I 481 – 511
China: dynasties: Jin 266 – 420, Northern and Southern dynasties 420 – 589
India: empires: Gupta Empire 320 – 550
Rome and Byzantium: Western Empire 395 – 476, Justinian I 476 – 610

Largest states