520
Year 520 was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Vitalianus. The denomination 520 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.Events
By place
- Priscian, Latin grammarian, writes the Institutiones Grammaticae. In Constantinople, he codifies this manuscript in 18 volumes, that will be widely used through the Middle Ages. It provides the raw material for the field of speculative grammar.
- July - Byzantine general Vitalian becomes consul, and is shortly later murdered, probably on the orders of Justinian. He is the nephew and heir-apparent of Emperor Justin I.
Britannia
- King Pabo Post Prydain of the Pennines abdicates his throne, and divides the kingdom between his two sons. He retires, as a hermit, to Anglesey.
- The Kingdom of East Anglia is formed, by the merging of the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and perhaps the eastern part of The Fens .
- King Budic II returns to Cornouaille, to claim the Breton throne.
Europe
- Ostrogothic ruler Theodoric the Great builds the Mausoleum of Theodoric, as his future tomb in Ravenna.
Asia
- Bodhidharma, Buddhist monk, arrives in Luoyang. He spreads Buddhism and travels to the northern Chinese kingdom of Wei, to the Shaolin Monastery.
By topic
Religion
Births
- Hou Andu, general of the Chen Dynasty
- Justin II, emperor of the Byzantine Empire
- Malo, Welsh bishop
- Martin of Braga, missionary and archbishop
- Pope Pelagius II of Rome
- Radegund, Frankish princess
- Zuhayr bin Abi Sulma, Arabian poet
Deaths
- January 19 - John of Cappadocia, patriarch of Constantinople
- July - Vitalian, Byzantine general, consul
- Abbán, Irish cult leader and saint
- Ardgal mac Conaill, king of Uisneach
- Isidore of Alexandria, Neoplatonist philosopher
- Maximinus, Frankish abbot and saint
- Zu Gengzhi, Chinese mathematician
