450s

Roman Empire

• Spring – Justa Grata Honoria, eldest sister of emperor Valentinian III, sends her ring to Attila the Hun in an effort to escape a marriage being forced upon her by her brother. Now about 34, she has had an affair with an officer in her household and has allegedly plotted to overthrow Valentinian, who has sent her to a convent at Constantinople. Attila announces his intention to marry her, says he expects to be given half the Western Roman Empire as her dowry, and gathers a large Hun invasion force. Flavius Aetius, Roman general (magister militum), musters in Gaul an army of Burgundians, Celts, Ripuarians, Salian Franks and Visigoths under the command of the Visigoth king Theodoric I.
• July 28 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 49, falls from his horse while hunting at Constantinople and dies soon afterward. He reigned since 408, mostly under the domination of his Christian sister Pulcheria, who has been allowed to return to court (see 441).
• August 25 – Pulcheria is forced to marry and co-rule the Eastern Roman Empire. She gives the imperial diadem to the Illyrian (or Thracian) officer and senator Marcian, age 58, and is crowned as empress in the Hippodrome at Constantinople, in a first religious coronation ceremony.
• Marcian orders the execution (or assassination) of the unpopular court eunuch Chrysaphius. He discontinues the tribute payments to Attila.
• All the Temples of Aphrodisias (City of Goddess Aphrodite) are demolished and its libraries burned down. The city is renamed Stauroupolis (City of the Cross).

Europe

• Angles, Saxons and Jutes invade Britain, marking the beginning of the Old English period (approximate date).
• Remodelling begins of the Dome of Baptistry of Neon, Ravenna (Italy) (approximate date).

Persia

• King Yazdegerd II summons the leading Armenian nobles to the Persian capital Ctesiphon, pressuring them to cut their ties with the Western Church.^[1]

Asia

• Nalanda University (India) is founded (approximate date).

Agriculture

• Metal horseshoes come into more common use in the Near East and in Europe, increasing the efficiency of horsepower in agriculture and transportation.

Exploration and Colonization

• Hawaii Loa, Polynesian chief, discovers what will be called the Hawaiian Islands; he sails across 2,400 miles of open water from the island of Raiatea, near Tahiti. He settles on Hawaii, named in his honor (approximate date).

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