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Anastasius has perfected the empire's monetary system, increased its treasury, and proved himself an able administrator of domestic and foreign affairs.

His heretical Monophysite religious policies, however, are the cause of periodic rebellions.

At first professing orthodoxy, Anastasius has gradually adhered more to Monophysite doctrine, which holds that Christ had one, divine nature.

Although this stand has caused great unrest in Constantinople and in the European provinces, it has bought peace with Egypt and Syria.

In Thrace, however, it has inspired rebellion by the military commander Vitalianus.

Vitalian is first mentioned in 503, when he accompanied his father in the Anastasian War against the Persians.

By 513, he had risen to the rank of comes in Thrace, possibly comes foederatorum, "count of the foederati", barbarian soldiers serving in the East Roman army.

From this post, he rebels against Emperor Anastasius, taking advantage of widespread resentment over the emperor's military, religious, and social policies.

Anastasius had changed the form of the Trisagion and officially adopted the Miaphysite dogma in 511, angering the Empire's Chalcedonian population, already alienated by his strict financial policies.

Furthermore, Anastasius had refused to supply the annonae ("rations", "provisions") due to the foederati, allowing Vitalian to quickly gain the allegiance of the regular troops stationed in the provinces of Thrace, Moesia II, and Scythia Minor from the unpopular magister militum per Thracias, Hypatius.

Hypatius's subordinate commanders are either killed or join the rebellion.

At the same time, posing as a champion of Chalcedonian orthodoxy, Vitalian is able to gain the support of the local people, who flock to join his force.

According to contemporary chroniclers, he quickly assembles an army of fifty thousand to sixty thousand men, "both soldiers and peasants", and marches onto Constantinople, possibly hoping that the mostly Chalcedonian inhabitants will join him.

Indeed, it appears that Vitalian's revolt was primarily motivated by religious reasons, something suggested by his repeatedly demonstrated willingness to reach an accommodation with Anastasius.

To counter Vitalian's propaganda, Anastasius orders bronze crosses to be set up on the city walls inscribed with his own version of events.

The emperor also reduces taxes in the provinces of Bithynia and Asia to prevent them from joining the rebellion.

When Vitalian's forces reach the capital, they encamp at the suburb of Hebdomon and blockade the landward side of the city.

Anastasius opts for negotiations, and sends out Vitalian's former patron, the former consul and magister militum praesentalis Patricius, as ambassador.

To him, Vitalian declares his aims: the restoration of Chalcedonian orthodoxy and the settling of the Thracian army's grievances.

Patricius then invites him and his officers for negotiations in the city itself.

Vitalian refuses for himself, but allows his senior officers to go on the next day.

The officers are well treated by Anastasius, who gives them gifts and promises that their soldiers' grievances will be settled.

He also pledges to submit the religious dispute for resolution to the Patriarch of Rome.

Upon their return to the rebel camp, these officers unanimously pressure Vitalian to accept this settlement.

Faced with no alternative, only eight days after his arrival before the capital, Vitalian retreats and returns with his men to Lower Moesia.

Anastasius now appoints as magister militum per Thracias an officer called Cyril, who proceeds to attack Vitalian's forces.

After a few inconclusive skirmishes, Vitalian manages to bribe his entry into Odessus, Cyril's base, and kill him.

At this point, Anastasius has Vitalian declared a "public enemy" and sends out a new huge army—reportedly eighty thousand men—under his nephew Hypatius, with a Hun called Alathar as the new magister militum of Thrace.

After winning a minor initial victory, the imperial army is eventually pushed back towards Odessus in autumn 513.

At Acris, on the Black Sea coast, Vitalian's men attack the imperial army's fortified laager in darkness and deal them a crushing defeat: the larger part of the army is killed, and both imperial commanders are taken prisoner and held for ransom.

The victory consolidates Vitalian's position.

With the spoils, he is able to lavishly reward his followers, and at the news of the imperial army's annihilation, the remaining cities and forts in Lower Moesia and Scythia surrender to him.

Soon after, he has another stroke of luck: at Sozopolis, his men capture an embassy sent by Anastasius to ransom his nephew, including the ransom money of eleven hundred pounds of gold.

Hypatius, however, whom Vitalian hates because he had once insulted his wife, will not be released until a year later.

Gesalec, abandoned by Thrasamund, had fled to Aquitania, where he remained for a year.

Herwig Wolfram notes that although Aquitania had been conquered by the Franks following the Battle of Vouille, it was still thickly populated by Visigoths and pro-Gothic Romans.

Gesalec returns once again to Spain, only to be defeated by Theodoric's general Ibbas outside of Barcelona, according to Isidore of Seville at the twelfth milestone.

Although he escapes from the battlefield, Gesalec is captured after crossing the Durance River and subsequently executed, probably in 513.

Northern Wei and Liang have continued to wage relatively minor border battles, with each side having gains and losses.

In 514, however, Xuanwu commissions Gao Zhao to launch a major attack against Liang's Yi Province (modern Sichuan and Chongqing).

Vitalian marches again towards Constantinople in 514, this time gathering, in addition to his army, a fleet of two hundred vessels from the Black Sea ports, which sails down the Bosporus menacing the city from the sea as well.

Anastasius is further disquieted by riots in the city, which leave many casualties, and resolves to treat again with Vitalian.

Vitalian accepts, on the conditions of his nomination to the post of magister militum per Thracias and the receipt of ransom money and gifts worth in total five thousand pounds of gold for the release of Hypatius.

Anastasius also concedes the removal of the changes from the Trisagion, the restoration of the deposed Chalcedonian bishops, and the convocation of a general church council at Constantinople on July 1, 515.

Caesarius, bishop of Arles, had visited Pope Symmachus in 513 while being detained in Italy.

This meeting led to Symmachus being decorated with a pallium.

Based on this introduction, Caesarius later writes to Symmachus for help with establishing his authority, which Symmachus eagerly gives, according to William Klingshirn, "to gather outside support for his primacy."

Symmachus has provided money and clothing to the Catholic bishops of Africa and Sardinia who had been exiled by the rulers of the Arian Vandals.

He has also ransomed prisoners from upper Italy, and given them gifts of aid.

He dies at Rome on July 19, 514, after a sixteen-year reign and is succeeded by Hormisdas as the fifty-second pope.

Hormisdas was born at Frosinone, Campagna di Roma, Italy.

Before becoming a Roman deacon, Hormisdas was married, and his son will become pope under the name of Silverius.

During the Laurentian schism, Hormisdas had been one of the most prominent clerical partisans of Pope Symmachus.

He was notary at the synod held at St. Peter's in 502.

Two letters of Magnus Felix Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, survive addressed to him, written when the latter tried to regain horses and money he had lent the pope.

Unlike his predecessor, the election of Hormisdas lacked any notable controversies.

Upon becoming Pope, one of Hormisdas' first actions is to remove the last vestiges of the schism in Rome, receiving back into the Church those adherents of the Laurentian party who had not already been reconciled.

The account of his tenure in the Liber Pontificalis, as well as the overwhelming bulk of his surviving correspondence, is dominated by efforts to restore communion between the Sees of Rome and Constantinople caused by the Acacian schism, the consequence of the "Henoticon" of the Emperor Zeno and supported by his successor Anastasius, who had increasingly inclined towards Monophysitism and persecuted those bishops who refused to repudiate the Council of Chalcedon.

Cissa of Sussex becomes king of the South Saxons in 514 (approximate date) after the death of his father, Aele, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.