539

Year 539 (DXXXIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Strategius without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1292 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 539 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

For highways, see List of highways numbered 539.

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	5th century 6th century 7th century
Decades:	510s 520s 530s 540s 550s
Years:	536 537 538 539 540 541 542

539 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	539 DXXXIX
Ab urbe condita	1292
Assyrian calendar	5289
Balinese saka calendar	460–461
Bengali calendar	−54
Berber calendar	1489
Buddhist calendar	1083
Burmese calendar	−99
Byzantine calendar	6047–6048
Chinese calendar	戊午年 (Earth Horse) 3236 or 3029     — to — 己未年 (Earth Goat) 3237 or 3030
Coptic calendar	255–256
Discordian calendar	1705
Ethiopian calendar	531–532
Hebrew calendar	4299–4300
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	595–596
- Shaka Samvat	460–461
- Kali Yuga	3639–3640
Holocene calendar	10539
Iranian calendar	83 BP – 82 BP
Islamic calendar	86 BH – 85 BH
Javanese calendar	426–427
Julian calendar	539 DXXXIX
Korean calendar	2872
Minguo calendar	1373 before ROC 民前1373年
Nanakshahi calendar	−929
Seleucid era	850/851 AG
Thai solar calendar	1081–1082
Tibetan calendar	阳土马年 (male Earth-Horse) 665 or 284 or −488     — to — 阴土羊年 (female Earth-Goat) 666 or 285 or −487

Events

By place

Byzantine Empire

• March – Gothic War: The Goths and the Burgundians recapture Mediolanum (modern Milan), after many months of siege, the city reaching the point of starvation. The Byzantine garrison (1,000 men) surrenders and is spared, but the inhabitants are massacred (according to Procopius 300,000 people are murdered), and the city itself is destroyed.
• Belisarius, still besieging Ravenna, negotiates a treaty with Theodebert I (whose forces are suffering from dysentery), and the Franks retreat to Gaul. The Byzantine fleet controls the Adriatic Sea and blockades the port of the capital from supplies.
• Emperor Justinian I becomes alarmed by renewed barbarian incursions across the Danube frontier from the Slavs, the Bulgars, the Gepids, and the Avars.^[1]
• November 29 – Antioch is struck by an earthquake.

Europe

• Walthari murders his uncle Wacho and becomes king of the Lombards.

Asia

• Kinmei succeeds his brother Senka, and ascends as 29th emperor to the throne of Japan.

By topic

Society

• Fourth year of worldwide famine, a consequence of the Extreme weather events of 535–536.^{[n 1]}

Births

• Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib, leader of the Banu Hashim and uncle of Muhammad (d. 619)
• Bertha, wife of Æthelberht of Kent
• Chilperic I, king of Neustria (approximate date)
• Maurice, emperor of the Byzantine Empire (d. 602)

Deaths

• Senka, emperor of Japan
• Wacho, king of the Lombards

Notes and references

Notes

1. Famine is described as "U539.1, Failure of bread" in the Annals of Ulster.^[2]

References

1. The Making of the Slavs (p. 190–226). Florin Curta, 2001. ISBN 978-0-511-49629-5
2. Bambury, Pádraig; Beechinor, Stephen (2000). "The Annals of Ulster" (Electronic edition compiled by the CELT Team (2000) ed.). CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College Cork College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt. pp. U539.1.