998

Year 998 (CMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	9th century 10th century 11th century
Decades:	970s 980s 990s 1000s 1010s
Years:	995 996 997 998 999 1000 1001

998 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	998 CMXCVIII
Ab urbe condita	1751
Armenian calendar	447 ԹՎ ՆԽԷ
Assyrian calendar	5748
Balinese saka calendar	919–920
Bengali calendar	405
Berber calendar	1948
Buddhist calendar	1542
Burmese calendar	360
Byzantine calendar	6506–6507
Chinese calendar	丁酉年 (Fire Rooster) 3695 or 3488     — to — 戊戌年 (Earth Dog) 3696 or 3489
Coptic calendar	714–715
Discordian calendar	2164
Ethiopian calendar	990–991
Hebrew calendar	4758–4759
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1054–1055
- Shaka Samvat	919–920
- Kali Yuga	4098–4099
Holocene calendar	10998
Iranian calendar	376–377
Islamic calendar	387–389
Japanese calendar	Chōtoku 4 (長徳４年)
Javanese calendar	899–900
Julian calendar	998 CMXCVIII
Korean calendar	3331
Minguo calendar	914 before ROC 民前914年
Nanakshahi calendar	−470
Seleucid era	1309/1310 AG
Thai solar calendar	1540–1541
Tibetan calendar	阴火鸡年 (female Fire-Rooster) 1124 or 743 or −29     — to — 阳土狗年 (male Earth-Dog) 1125 or 744 or −28

Pope Gregory V (c. 972–999)

Events

By place

Europe

• Spring – Otto III retakes Rome and restores power in the papal city. Crescentius II (the Younger) and his followers barricade themselves in Castel Sant'Angelo. Otto's former tutor John Philagathos (Antipope John XVI), who tries to escape into Campania, is pursued by German troops and captured. He is horribly mutilated – his ears, nose and tongue cut off and his eyes are gouged out. Crescentius surrenders at his stronghold and is beheaded. Otto reinstates his cousin, Gregory V, as pope of the Catholic Church.^[1]
• Croatian–Bulgarian War: Emperor Samuel launches a military campaign against the Kingdom of Croatia to prevent an alliance between the Serbian principality and the Byzantines. He seizes Dyrrachium (modern-day Durrës in Albania) and advances along the Dalmatian coast. The Bulgarian army is forced to withdraw into Croatian hinterlands (now part of Bosnia and Herzegovina), after the Siege of Zadar.^[2]
• Fall – Otto III makes Rome the administrative capital of the Holy Roman Empire and begins the construction of his imperial palace on the Palatine Hill. He restores the ancient Roman Senate to its position of prominence and adopts the title of "Emperor of the Romans". To this Otto adds the apostolic devotion formula servus Jesu Christi ('Servant of Jesus Christ').^[3]
• Winter – King Robert II (the Pious) is excommunicated by Gregory V. For reasons of consanguinity, his second marriage to Bertha of Burgundy is not accepted by the Catholic Church.^[4]

Arabian Empire

• Battle of Ghazni: The Afghan prince Mahmud defeats his younger brother Ismail (the ruling emir of the Ghaznavid Dynasty) in battle. He places Ismail in comfortable captivity for the rest of his life and expands the realm of his late father, Sebuktigin, into the Punjab in northwestern India.
• Summer – Revolt of Tyre: The city of Tyre (modern Lebanon) is stormed by forces of the Fatimid Caliphate. A Byzantine squadron attempts to reinforce but is repulsed by the Fatimid navy. The defenders are massacred or taken captive to Egypt. The Byzantine captives are executed.^[5]
• July 19 – Battle of Apamea: Byzantine forces under governor (doux) Damian Dalassenos besiege the fortress city of Apamea for control over northern Syria. The Fatimids send a relief army from Damascus – and defeat the Byzantines, Dalassenos is killed by a Kurdish officer in battle.

Japan

• Byōdō-in Temple (located in Yamashiro Province) is built during the Heian Period on orders of Fujiwara no Michinaga, who uses the Buddhist temple as a countryside retreat villa (modern-day Kyoto Prefecture).^[6]

By topic

Religion

• Winter – Otto III makes a pilgrimage through middle Italy from Gargano to Benevento. Stopping by Monte Cassino, where he meets the hermit monk Romuald.
• Bishop Wulfsige III establishes a Benedictine abbey at Sherborne (Dorsetshire).

Births

• Ibn Abi Hasina, Arab poet and panegyrist (d. 1065)
• Mas'ud I, sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire (d. 1040)
• Muhammad, sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire (d. 1041)
• Song Qi, Chinese statesman and historian (d. 1061)
• Zeng Gongliang, Chinese scholar and writer (d. 1078)

Deaths

• July 15 – Abu al-Wafa' Buzjani, Persian mathematician (b. 940)
• July 19 – Damian Dalassenos, Byzantine governor (doux)
• August 8 – Sŏ Hŭi, Korean politician and diplomat (b. 942)
• August 19 – Fujiwara no Sukemasa, Japanese statesman (b. 944)
• August 24 – Sisinnius II, patriarch of Constantinople
• October 28 – Sigfried, count of the Ardennes (Luxembourg)
• Æthelweard, English ealdorman and historian (approximate date)
• Koppány (or Cupan), Hungarian nobleman (approximate date)
• Landulf of Carcano, Lombard chronicler and archbishop
• Nikon the Metanoeite, Byzantine monk and preacher
• Samsam al-Dawla, emir of the Buyid Dynasty (b. 963)
• Yelü Xiuge, general and politician of the Liao Dynasty

References

1. John Norwich (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee, pp. 255–256. ISBN 0-394-53779-3.
2. John Norwich (1991). Byzantium: The Apogee, p. 257. ISBN 0-394-53779-3.
3. Reuter, Timothy (1992). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume III, p. 258. ISBN 978-0-521-36447-8.
4. James Palmer (2014). The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages, p. 215. Cambridge University Press.
5. Gil, Moshe (1997). A History of Palestine, 634–1099, pp. 369–370. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-59984-9.
6. Uji Travel: Byodoin Temple - Japan Guide (Retrieved August 4, 2017).