The secret of silk left Asia inside walking sticks.

552

Around 552 two monks working for Justinian hid silkworm eggs in hollow bamboo canes, and Byzantium began making its own silk.

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The event

• Monks smuggle silkworms to Byzantiumc. 552 · Constantinople. Byzantium paid dearly for silk and even believed it came from India. Around 552 two monks promised Justinian they would fetch silkworms, and returned from Asia with eggs hidden in their bamboo canes — the start of the empire's own silk industry.

6th century

More amazing facts

• 532 Emperor Justinian was nearly overthrown by sports fans.
• 532 · 537 Constantinople owes Hagia Sophia to rioting sports fans.
• 536 · 541 536 is called one of the worst years to be alive: volcanic haze dimmed the sun across the Northern Hemisphere, and five years later the Plague of Justinian began.
• 537 Hagia Sophia remained the world's largest church for more than 500 years: consecrated in 537, it was surpassed only when the abbey church of Cluny in France was completed in the 12th century.
• 537 Byzantine sources claimed that Hagia Sophia's Imperial Gate was made from the timber of Noah's Ark. The seven-metre, 6th-century door was used only by the emperor and his retinue.
• 550 A Buddha was dug up in Sweden.

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