440s

Events

440

By place

Roman Empire

• Flavius Aetius, Roman general (magister militum), returns as triumphator back to Rome after several years' fighting the Burgundians and Visigoths in Gaul. He is honoured by a statue erected by the Senate and by order of emperor Valentinian III.

Europe

• The Huns under Attila reappear in force along the frontier of the Western Roman Empire. They attack merchants on the north bank of the Danube and cities in Illyricum, including (according to Priscus) Viminacium, city of Moesia.

Africa

• A Vandal fleet and their allies (Alans, Goths and Moors) set out from Carthage for Sicily, the principal supplier of oil and grain to Italy after the loss of North Africa. They loot all the coastal towns and besiege Palermo. Heavily laden ships return to the court of king Genseric.

China

• Dynasties of the North and South: The Chinese Empire is unified by the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Northern state will have three competing dynasties—Northern Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Liang, while the Southern state is dominated by the Song (or Liu Song) Dynasty.

Asia

• The Hepthalites (White Huns) move south from the Altai Mountains region into Transoxiana, Bactria, Khorasan and eastern Persia.
• A center of Buddhist studies is established at Nalanda in Bihar on the plains of the Ganges River (India).

By topic

Art

• The Parting of Lot and Abraham, mosaic in the nave arcade, Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (Rome), is made.

Ancient Games

• Chaturanga, Indian war game, and an ancestor of chess through the Persian game of Shatranj (or Chatrang), evolves in the Indus Valley on the Indian subcontinent (approximate date).

Religion

• August 18 – Pope Sixtus III dies after an 8-year reign in which he has resisted heresy and sponsored major construction programs in Rome. He is succeeded by Leo I as the 45th pope.
• September 29 – Leo I begins to formulate Orthodoxy and condemns Eutychianism, an extreme form of monophysitism which holds that the human nature of Christ is absorbed by His divine nature.
• Winter – Leo I sends a letter to Valentinian III, stating "by the Holy Spirit's inspiration the emperor needs no human instruction and is incapable of doctrinal error".

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Significant people

• Attila the Hun, King of the Huns

References

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