Arcadius's prime minister, the eunuch Eutropius, having…

Yao Xing is described by historians as diligent and willing to listen to different opinions, ruling the empire efficiently during this period.

He engages in a number of campaigns on the various borders, enlarging Later Qin's territories and influence.

In response to astrological signs that are considered signs of disaster, he stops claiming the title of emperor in 399, instead using the title "Heavenly Prince" (Tian Wang), to show humility to the gods.

He also accordingly demotes his officials and nobles by one rank.

Yao Xing is an avid Buddhist, and it is during his reign that Buddhism first receives official state support in China.

The Jin Dynasty had developed an alliance with the Tuoba against the Xiongnu state Han Zhao.

In 315 the Tuoba chief had been granted the title of the Prince of Dai.

After the death of its founding prince, Tuoba Yilu, however, the Dai state had stagnated and largely remained a partial ally and a partial tributary state to Later Zhao and Former Yan, finally falling to Former Qin in 376.

The Former Qin state had begun to break apart as well after the defeat of its emperor Fu Jiān by Jin forces at the Battle of Fei River in his failed bid to unify China.

By 386, Tuoba Gui, the grandson (or son) of the final Prince of Dai, Tuoba Shiyijian, had reasserted independence, initially with the title of Prince of Dai, and then as the Prince of Wei, and his state is therefore known in history as Northern Wei.

Northern Wei was initially a vassal of Later Yan, but by 395 had rebelled against Later Yan, and by 398 had conquered most of Later Yan territory, establishing itself over the territory north of the Yellow River.

In 399, Tuoba Gui declares himself emperor, and that title will be used by Northern Wei's rulers for the rest of the state's history.

Silla submits to Goguryeo in 399 for protection from raids from Baekjae.

Many consider this loose unification under Goguryeo to have been the first and only true unification of the Three Kingdoms.

Yao Xing, also in 399, sends his brother Yao Chóng the Duke of Qi and the general Yang Foxong to attack the important Jin city of Luoyang, and in winter 399 captures Luoyang and the surrounding cities.

Many peasants are said to have fled to Silla during another round of conscription by Asin of Baekje for the battles against Goguryeo in 399.

Persian records describe Bahram IV as a harsh man who entirely neglects his duties, and whose conduct had grown so unbearable that he is ultimately assassinated by his own troops, who in 399 surround him and shoot him with arrows.

His successor is his younger brother, Yazdegerd.

Southern Arabia is again independent at the end of the fourth century, under a Himyarite “king of Saba' and the Dhu Raydan and Hadramawt and Yamanat”.

Neoplatonism has transformed the position of the six-centuries-old Platonic Academy in Athens from one of skepticism into a new religious view.

Plotinus's doctrines, which reject the Empire's materialism and compulsive consumerism, become the official position of the Platonic Academy at the end of the fourth century.

In addition to this essentially Roman school, various other schools of Neoplatonism (such as the Syrian, Alexandrine, Pergamene) also have emerged.

Some of them, for example, the Pergamene, engage in theurgy, or magical practices.

The gradual downfall of gladiatorial games in the east has been attributed to the effect of Christians on the gore-filled games.

Although Christians see the combats as murder they have no objection to the killing and bloodshed in itself but rather object to the moral harm done to the spectators and the immorality of murder.

They also see the arena as a place of martyrdom and both refuse to participate as spectators and seek for an end to the Gladiator shows although they have no objection to the continuation of animal-on-animal fights and animal hunts (venationes).

Constantine had issued an edict in 325 which briefly ended the games, but speculation that the edict was a permanent ban is rebuked by the presence of uncontested games only three years later.

In 367, Valentinian I had placed a ban on sentencing Christians to the arena, but the sentencing of non-Christians remained unchanged.

After Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 393 under the reign of Theodosius, the emperor himself sought to ban heathen festivals, but gladiator shows have continued.

Their programs, however, are very limited due to financial reasons and the audience dwindles as many convert to Christianity.

Western Roman Emperor Honorius Flavius, Theodosius' younger son, who had been greatly influenced by Ambrose, finally decrees the end of gladiatorial contests in 399.

In this year also, he confiscates gold and silver that had been collected by the Italian synagogues to be sent to Jerusalem, defining Judaism as an unworthy superstition, or superstitio indigna.

Pope Siricius dies in November 399 and is succeeded by Anastasius, who numbers among his friends Augustine, Jerome, and Paulinus.

Jerome speaks of him as a man of great holiness who was rich in his poverty.