Gwanggaeto of Goguryeo attacks Liáoníng in 404…

Chinese Buddhist theologian Huiyuan had in 402 organized a group of monks and lay people into a Mahayana sect known as Pure Land Buddhism, the Pure Land being the western paradise of the Buddha Amitabha.

According to this belief, the cosmos contains many Pure Lands, in each of which dwells one Buddha.

He founds a monastery on Lushan in Jiangxi province and writes the text On Why Monks Do Not Bow Down Before Kings in 404.

In his book he argues that although the Buddhist clergy should remain independent and undisturbed by politics, the Buddhist laymen nonetheless make good subjects under monarchs, due to their fear of retribution of karma and desire to be reborn in paradise.

Murong Chao, apprehensive that his true identity will be discovered, becomes a beggar and pretends to be insane.

However, on one occasion, the brother of Later Qin's emperor Yao Xing, Yao Shao, the Duke of Dongping, sees him, and thinks that this is not truly an insane person—because he looks healthy and strong physically.

He informs Yao Xing of this and suggests that Yao Xing give Murong Chao a minor official position to secure him.

Yao Xing summons Murong Chao to an audience with him, but Murong Chao continues the charade and intentionally gives wrong answers or no answers at all when Yao Xing asks him questions.

Yao Xing is unconvinced that Yao Shao is correct, and sends Murong Chao away.

John Chrysostom, having again come into a conflict with the Empress and incurring her wrath, is sent into exile on June 20, 404. (He will die three years later on an enforced journey to Pontus.)

During the subsequent riots, Constantinople’s half-century-old cathedral of Constantine is largely burned down to the ground.

Nothing remains of the first church today.

Shortly afterward, Eudoxia, having borne Arcadius four daughters and a son and now in her third pregnancy, is left bleeding from a miscarriage and shortly dies of an infection on October 6, 404.

One Theodore, who had studied rhetoric, literature, and biblical exegesis with his friend John Chrysostom in his home town of Antioch and had been ordained a priest in 383, had been consecrated bishop of Mopsuestia in 392 and had become known from this point as Theodore of Mopsuestia.

In 394, he had attended a synod at Constantinople on a question which concerned the see of Bostra in the partiarchate of Antioch.

While there, Theodore had had the opportunity to preach before the emperor Theodosius, who was then starting for his last journey to the West.

The sermon had made a deep impression, and Theodosius, sitting at the feet of Ambrose of Milan and Gregory Nazianzus, declared that he had never met with such a teacher.

Emperor Theodosius had adopted Christianity as the Roman state religion and banned pagan festivals, but the ludi have continued, very gradually shorn of their stubbornly pagan munera.

Honorius had legally ended gladiator munera in 399, and again in 404 CE, at least in the Western half of the Empire.

The last known gladiator fight in Rome occurs on January 1, 404, usually given as the date of the martyrdom of Saint Telemachus, a Christian monk who was stoned by the crowd for trying to stop a gladiators' fight in a Roman amphitheater.

John Cassian was born around 360, likely in the region of Scythia Minor (now Dobruja in modern-day Romania and Bulgaria), although some scholars assume a Gallic origin.

As a young adult he and an older friend, Germanus, had traveled to Palestine, where they had entered a hermitage near Bethlehem.

After remaining in that community for about three years, they had journeyed to the desert of Scete in Egypt, which was rent by Christian struggles.

There they visited a number of monastic foundations.

Approximately fifteen years later, in about 399, Cassian and Germanus had fled the controversy provoked by Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, with about 300 other Origenist monks.

John Cassian and Germanus had gone to Constantinople, where they appealed to the Patriarch of Constantinople, John Chrysostom, for protection.

John Cassian was ordained a deacon and was made a member of the clergy attached to the Patriarch while the struggles with the imperial family ensued.

When the Patriarch is forced into exile from Constantinople in 404, the Latin-speaking Cassian is sent to Rome to plead his cause before Pope Innocent I.

Stilicho continues negotiations with Alaric; Flavius Aetius, son of one of Stilicho's major supporters, is to be sent as a hostage to Alaric in 405.

However, Stilicho is distracted in late 404, by a fresh invasion of Northern Italy by another group of Goths fleeing the Huns, led by one Radagaisus.

The Khitan, of Xianbei origin, had been part of the Kumo Xi tribe until 388, when the Kumo Xi-Khitan tribal grouping was roundly defeated by the newly established Northern Wei, allowing the Khitan to resume their own tribe and entity, and beginning the Khitan written history.

First mentioned in Chinese chronicles in 405, the Khitan wander along the boundaries of Kara-muren, and had formed part of the Donghu confederation destroyed by the Xiongnu in 150 BCE.

Murong De, who had by 405 has established Southern Yan and become its emperor, has become aware that Murong Chao is being detained in Chang'an, and sends secret messengers to encourage him to flee to Southern Yan.

Murong Chao, not daring to tell even his mother and wife, flees to Southern Yan.

On the way, he passes through the territory of the general Murong Fa, the governor of Yan Province (modern western Shandong), and Murong Fa, believing that he is not truly of imperial descent, disrespects him, leading Murong Chao to bear grudges against Murong Fa in the future.

Murong De is greatly pleased when Murong Chao arrives at the capital, Guanggu (in modern Qingzhou, Shandong), and Murong Chao presents him the golden knife that Murong De had left Lady Gongsun before leaving.

Murong De mourns his mother and brother greatly, but creates Murong Chao to be the Prince of Beihai—the same title that Murong Na had held.

As Murong De has no surviving sons, he considers Murong Chao his probable heir, and he selects talented men to be Murong Chao's assistants.

Murong Chao, at this time, is described to be a careful servant to his uncle and appropriate in all his outward actions, leading the officials and the populace to be happy with him.

In autumn 405, Murong De falls ill, and considers creating Murong Chao crown prince.

During the discussion, an earthquake occurs, and Murong De, taking the earthquake as a bad omen, temporarily terminates the discussion, but his illness grows worse during the night, and he is no longer able to speak.

His wife Empress Duan Jifei asks him whether Murong Chao should be summoned and created crown prince, and Murong De nods, so Murong Chao is created crown prince.

Murong De dies that night, and the next day, Murong Chao takes the throne as emperor.

He honors Empress Duan as empress dowager.

However, Murong Chao immediately shows himself to be capricious and unwilling to listen to criticism.

He immediately makes one of his associates, Gongsun Wulou, a major general, despite Gongsun's commonly perceived lack of qualifications, and he disassociates himself from the officials Murong Zhong, the Prince of Beidi, and Duan Hong, whom Murong De had entrusted with great responsibilities.

He is further described as being surrounded by flatterers and engaging his time on hunting and tours, refusing all advice against doing so.

Moreover, he wishes to restore punishments that include facial tattooing, cutting off noses, cutting off feet, and castration, but in the face of popular opposition, he does not carry out these actions.

He is also described as imposing heavy tax and labor burdens on the people.

Rudrasena II, who in 380 had become emperor of Vakataka in the Deccan Plateau of India, is said to have married Prabhavatigupta, the daughter of the Gupta King Chandragupta II (375-413/15).

Rudrasena II had died in 385 after a very short reign, following which Prabhavatigupta has ruled as a regent on behalf of her two sons, Divakarasena and Damodarasena (Pravarsena II) for twenty years.

During this period the Vakataka realm has been practically a part of the Gupta Empire.

Innocent, who had succeeded to the bishopric of Rome in 401, was, according to his biographer in the Liber Pontificalis, the son of a man called Innocens of Albano; but according to his contemporary Jerome, his father was Pope Anastasius I, whom he was called by the unanimous voice of the clergy and laity to succeed (he had been born before his father's entry to the clergy, let alone the papacy; this is before the time of a universal rule of celibacy for priests).

Innocent loses no opportunity of maintaining and extending the authority of the Roman see as the ultimate resort for the settlement of all disputes; and his still extant communications with Victricius of Rouen, Exuperius of Toulouse, Alexander of Antioch and others, as well as his actions on the appeal made to him by John Chrysostom against Theophilus of Alexandria, show that opportunities of the kind were numerous and varied.

In 405, Innocent promulgates the church’s first official listing of books forbidden to church members without specific permission from a qualified person.

Emperor Honorius closes the Flavian Amphitheatre (the Colosseum) in an austerity move that abolishes amusements.