The Council of Vannes and the Increasing…

The northern parts of China after the decline of the Jin Dynasty had come under the control of the Northern Wei, who made the city of Pingcheng, now known as Datong, their capital.

Due to its promotion, Pingcheng saw an increase in construction work.

The Northern Wei had early adopted Buddhism as their state religion.

Buddhism had arrived in this location via travel on the ancient North Silk Road, the northernmost route of about twenty-six hundred kilometers in length, which connects the ancient Chinese capital of Xi'an to the west over the Wushao Ling Pass to Wuwei and emerging in Kashgar before linking to ancient Parthia.

A sectarian movement within the Buddhist religion called Chan (or Ch'an, a Chinese attempt to render the Sanskrit word for meditation, “dhyana”), emphasizing the practice of meditation as the means to enlightenment, becomes distinct in East Asia, flourishing here.

Bodhidharma, a master of this text known as the Lankavatara Sutra, reportedly arrives there from India in about 470 and becomes the first Chan patriarch in China.

He stresses the practice of contemplative sitting (and, according to legend, spends nine years in meditation facing a wall).

Bodhidharma is primarily active in the lands of the Northern Wèi Dynasty (386–534).

Modern scholarship dates him to about the early fifth century.

The Yungang Grottoes, Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the province of Shanxi,are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and one of the three most famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China.

The others are Longmen and Mogao.

The work on this first period of carving lasts until the year 465, and the caves are now known as caves 16–20.

Chinese monumental stone sculpture becomes a tradition.

In the caves of Yungang (“Cloud Hill”), artisans begin the series of rock-cut shrines that contain a 45-foot sculpture of the Buddha.

The earliest caves reflect Central Asian and Gandharan influences, notably that of Afghanistan’s fourth-century Bamian cave-temples.

Emperor Libius Severus, reigning a little under four years, dies on August 15, 465.

Ricimer, de facto ruler of the Western Empire, establishes political control from his residence in Rome.

Emperor Leo I repels a Hunnish invasion of Dacia (modern Romania): they ravage the Balkans but are unable to take Constantinople thanks to the city walls, which are rebuilt and reinforced.

Not content to be Aspar's puppet, Leo has begun to rely increasingly on his Isaurian supporters, led by one Tarasis.

According to ancient sources, the earliest reference to Tarasis dates back to 464, when he put his hands on some letters written by Aspar's son, Ardabur, which proved that the son of the magister militum had incited the Sassanid King to invade Roman territory, promising to support the invasion.

Through these letters, which Tarasis gave to Leo, the Emperor could dismiss Ardabur, who at this time is magister militum per Orientem and patricius, thus reducing Aspar's influence and ambition.

As reward for his loyalty, which Leo praises with Daniel the Stylite, Tarasis had been appointed comes domesticorum, an office of great influence and prestige.

This appointment could mean that Tarasis had been a protector domesticus, either at Leo's court in Constantinople, or attached at Ardabur's staff in Antioch.

Leo and Aspar had quarreled in 465, about the appointment of consuls for the following year; it was in this occasion that Tarasis' position had been strengthened, as he had become friend and ally of the Emperor.

Tarasis comes in 466 with evidence that Aspar's son, Ardabur, the magister militum, is forming a conspiracy against Leo I. Ardabur is arrested for treason.

To make himself more acceptable to the Roman hierarchy and the population of Constantinople, Tarasis adopts the Greek name of Zeno; he will use it for the rest of his life.

King Theodoric II is killed by his younger brother Euric, who succeeds him on the throne.

Upon becoming king, Euric defeats several other Visigothic kings and chieftains in a series of civil wars and soon became the first ruler of a truly unified Visigothic nation.

Euric sends an embassy to the Eastern Roman Empire for recognition of the Visigoth sovereignty, and forms an alliance with the Suebi and the Vandals.

With his capital at Toulouse, Euric inherits a large portion of the Visigothic possessions in the Aquitaine region of Gaul, an area that has been under Visigothic control since 415.

Euric conquers Hispania and the harbor city of Marseille in southern Gaul, adding them to the existing Visigothic Kingdom.

A council of twelve townships emerges on the islands in the Venetian lagoon to form a basic system of governance.

The Suebi in Hispania likely remained mostly pagan until 466 CE, when an Arian missionary named Ajax, sent by Visigothic King Theodoric II at the request of Suebic ruler Remismund, successfully converts the Suebi nobility to Arian Christianity.

Ajax’s mission establishes a lasting Arian church, which remains dominant among the Suebi until their conversion to Catholicism in the 560s.

Zeno had married Ariadne, elder daughter of Leo I and Verina, in mid-late 466; as there is no reference to a divorce with Arcadia, she should have died in those years.

The next year their son was born, and Zeno became father of the heir apparent to the throne, as the only son of Leo I's had died in his infancy; to stress his claim to the throne, the boy was called Leo.

Zeno, however, is not present at the birth of his son, as in 467, he participates in a military campaign against the Goths.

Ricimer has maintained his power during the past several years despite serious threats to his position from Aegidius in Soissons and from Marcellinus, who rules a virtually independent state in Dalmatia.

Leo, emperor in the East, who had recognized Majorian as emperor in the West, had withheld recognition of Severus, who reigned as titular Western emperor for a little more than two years before dying on August 15, 465.

Nearly two years pass before the installation of Anthemius, the son-in-law of the Eastern emperor Marcian, on April 12, 467.

Appointed to his office by Marcian's successor, Leo, who wants help in attacking the Vandals in North Africa, Anthemius is accepted by Ricimer with the stipulation that his daughter, Alypia, marry him.

To the Eastern Empire, Anthemius is the first legitimate emperor since the death of Valentinian III in 455.

King Genseric extends his pirate raids in the Mediterranean Sea in summer 467.

The Vandals sack Illyricum, the Peloponnese and other parts of Greece, enslaving the inhabitants.

Leo I joins forces with the Western Empire to suppress the Vandal menace.