Pope Hormisdas and Anastasius continue to be…

Emperor Xuanwu dies suddenly in spring 515, and Yuan Xu succeeds him (as Emperor Xiaoming).

Yuan Cheng, Xuanwu's brother Yuan Yong the Prince of Gaoyang, and Yu Lie's son Yu Zhong seize power and, after recalling Gao, put him to death.

Xiaoming's mother Hu becomes empress dowager and regent.

Empress Dowager Hu is considered intelligent, capable of understanding many things quickly, but she is also overly lenient and tolerant of corruption.

For example, in winter 515, the corrupt governor of Qi Province (roughly modern Baoji, Shaanxi), Yuan Mi the Prince of Zhao, provokes a popular uprising when he kills several people without reason, and while he is relieved from his post, as soon as he returns to the capital, Luoyang, Empress Dowager Hu makes him a minister because his wife is her niece.

St. Maurice's Abbey is built on the ruins of a Roman shrine of the first century BCE to the god Mercury in the Roman staging-post of Agaunum, and first came to prominence as a result of a now disputed account by Saint Eucherius, Bishop of Lyon, who lived from about 380 to about 449).

Eucherius had experienced a revelation that convinced him of the martyrdom of a Roman legion, known as the "Theban Legion", under the leadership of Saint Maurice, around CE 285, in the area where the abbey is located.

The basilica of St. Maurice of Agaunum becomes the church of a monastery in 515 under the patronage of King Sigismund of Burgundy, the first ruler in his dynasty to convert from Arian Christianity to Trinitarian Christianity.

Sigismund had been a student of Avitus of Vienne, the Catholic bishop of Vienne who had converted Sigismund from the Arian faith of his Burgundian forebears.

Sigismund sets up five groups of monks to whom he entrusts the liturgy of the praise of God.

King Gundobad revives trial by combat as a solution to justice, establishing, in 501, judicial duel or trial by battle, the earliest form of the duel as a formal method of settling an argument or point of honor.

Gundobad is the likely promulgator of the Lex Burgundionum, a tribal code of the Burgundians, concerning marriage and inheritance as well as regulating weregild and other penalties (approximate date).

Interaction between Burgundians is treated separately from interaction between Burgundians and Gallo-Romans.

The oldest of the fourteen surviving manuscripts of the text dates to the ninth century, but the code's institution is ascribed to Gundobad , with a possible revision by his successor Sigismund.

The Raid of Hygelac (Chlochilaicus) and His Defeat by the Franks (c. 516 CE)

According to Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks, Hygelac, king of the Geats (known in Beowulf as Beowulf's uncle and overlord), led a raid on the Lower Rhine, only to be defeated by a Frankish army commanded by Theudebert, the son of King Theuderic I of the Merovingian Frankish Kingdom.

The Historical Context of Hygelac’s Raid

• Hygelac's attack was likely part of the Scandinavian coastal raids that targeted the Frankish realm during the early sixth century.
• He led his forces into Frisia, likely aiming to plunder Frankish settlements along the Lower Rhine.
• The Franks, under the leadership of Theudebert, responded swiftly, defeating and killing Hygelac.

Dating Hygelac’s Death (c. 516 CE)

• The Danish king Chlochilaicus, mentioned in Gregory’s account, is widely identified with Hygelac.
• N. F. S. Grundtvig, a Danish historian and philologist, used this raid to date Hygelac’s death to around 516 CE.
• The event aligns with the reign of Theuderic I (d. 534 CE), son of Clovis I, further supporting this timeframe.

Conflicting Identities: Geat, Dane, or Gothic King?

• Gregory of Tours calls Chlochilaicus "king of the Danes", suggesting a possible Danish connection to Hygelac.
• In the Liber Monstrorum, he is referred to as "rex Getarum" (king of the Getae), which in medieval sources often referred to the Goths or could be confused with the Geats of Scandinavia.
• The Liber Historiae Francorum calls him "rege Gotorum" (king of the Goths), which may indicate later scribal confusion between the Geats, Goths, and Getae.

The Frankish Victory and the Fate of Hygelac’s Army

• Theudebert, leading the Frankish counterattack, defeats and kills Hygelac during the raid.
• The surviving Geatish raiders are either killed, captured, or forced to retreat.
• This marks one of the earliest recorded Scandinavian raids on the Frankish territories, foreshadowing the later Viking incursions centuries later.

Hygelac’s Place in History and Legend

• Hygelac appears in Beowulf as a historical figure, supporting the idea that the poem preserves historical memory of real events.
• His defeat by the Franks aligns with early medieval accounts of Scandinavian activity along the coasts of Europe.
• Though some sources mistakenly associate him with the Goths or Danes, the core event of his raid and death remains well-documented in Frankish sources.

This raid represents one of the earliest known conflicts between the Franks and Scandinavian raiders, illustrating how Scandinavian warbands had begun testing their strength against the wealthier, Christianized kingdoms of mainland Europe—a trend that would intensify in later centuries with the Viking Age.

Emperor Wu of the Liang becomes a Buddhist and introduces the new religion to central China.

He demands that sacrifices to imperial ancestors be changed to using dried meat, instead of the traditional animals (goats, pigs and cows).

King Sigismund of Burgundy is opposed by his son Sigeric, who also insults his new wife, and has him strangled.

Overcome with remorse, he retreats to the monastery that he founded, St. Maurice's Abbey.

The Council of Epaone, convened near near Epao (present Anneyron in Burgundy), reinforces in 517 the decisions of the Council of Vannes (465) in prohibiting Christians from participating in Jewish feasts.

The synod enacts the first legislation against wooden altars, forbidding the building of any but stone altars with chrism (a mixture of oil and spice).

Empress Dowager Hu's power is unchallenged during these few years of Yuan Xu's childhood, and while she tolerates—and, in certain circumstances, encourages—criticism, including rewarding such officials as Yuan Kuang the Prince of Dongping and Zhang Puhui for their blunt words, she is slow to implement suggestions that will curb corruption.

Empress Dowager Hu is a fervent Buddhist, and during this part of the regency, she builds magnificent temples in Luoyang.

One, dedicated to her father Hu Guozhen the Duke of Qin, after his death in 518, is particularly beautiful.

Because of her influence, Emperor Xiaoming also becames a dedicated Buddhist.

In his youth, however, he also favors spending time in imperial gardens rather than studies or learning about important affairs of state.

An earthquake destroys the Illyrian (Macedonian) city of Scupi (later Skopje) in the Roman province of Dacia.

Anastasius dies in his late eighties on July 19, 518, leaving the imperial treasury richer by twenty-three million solidi or three hundred and twenty thousand pounds of gold.

He having died childless, without designating an heir, and without a reigning Augusta to supervise the election of a successor, the throne is up for grabs.

According to John Malalas, a Greek chronicler from Antioch, the powerful praepositus sacri cubiculi Amantius intends to elect to the throne a comes domesticorum, commander of an elite guard unit of the late Roman Empire, by the name of Theocritus.

Theocritus is an obscure individual, primarily mentioned by two authors: John Malalas and Marcellinus Comes.

Amantius hopes to secure the election for Theocritus by bribing Justin, the influential comes excubitorum (head of the imperial guards).

Justin is supposed to share the money with his troops.

Justin, born of Thraco-Roman peasant stock n a hamlet near Bederiana in Naissus (modern Niš, South Serbia), had been a swineherd in his youth.

Like his companions and members of his family (Zimarchus, Dityvistus, Boraides, Bigleniza, Sabatius, etc.), he bears a Thracian name.

As a teenager, he and two companions had fled from a barbaric invasion, taking refuge in Constantinople possessing nothing more than the ragged clothes on their backs and a sack of bread between them.

Justin soon joined the army, entered the palace guard and, because of his ability, had risen through the ranks to become a general and a patrician under Anastasius I, becoming the emperor's close confidant and acting possibly as regent.

He remains illiterate and has never learned to speak more than rudimentary Greek.

The events of the election are described in detail by Peter the Patrician, extracts of whose work survive in the tenth-century De Ceremoniis.

On the morning of the election, the Excubitors at first put forward the tribune John as a candidate.

He is raised on the shield in the Hippodrome of Constantinople.

But the Blues, an influential chariot racing faction, riot against this candidate.

The guardsmen of the Scholae Palatinae then attempt to proclaim their own candidate, but the Excubitors almost kill that unnamed man.

The Excubitors then allegedly put forward Flavius Petrus Sabbatius (later Justinian I), nephew of Justin, as their second candidate for the day, but he refuses the crown.

The Senate supposedly settled the matter by electing Justin himself.

Both Amantius and Theocritus are soon executed on a pretext, obviously eliminated by Justin for their role in the conspiracy.

Procopius briefly mentions: "Indeed, his power [Justin's] was not ten days old, before he slew Amantius, chief of the palace eunuchs, and several others, on no graver charge than that Amantius had made some rash remark about John, Archbishop of the city.

After this, he was the most feared of men."

Based on the account of Marcellinus, Amantius and his supporters were accused of being adherents of Manichaeism.

A combination of sources imply that Amantius and Theocritus had attempted to overthrow Justin, following his election.

If so, they were met with swift executions.