601

By place

Byzantine Empire

• Balkan Campaign: A Byzantine army under command of Peter, brother of Emperor Maurice, crosses the Danube and advances to the Tisza River, where it defeats the Avars.

Europe

• The Franks, Merovingians and Carolingians successively control most of Europe, while strong feudal lords rise in power to gain the allegiance of the people.
• The Lombards under King Agilulf expand into Northern Italy, establishing a settlement with the Franks and maintaining intermittent relationships with Rome.
• Liuva II, age 18, succeeds his father Reccared I as king of the Visigoths. Reccared dies a natural death at the capital in Toledo after a 15-year reign.

By topic

Arts and sciences

• The Qieyun, a Chinese character rhyme dictionary, is published.

Agriculture

• Food production increases in northern and Western Europe as a result of agricultural technology introduced by the Slavs, who employ a lightweight plow with a knife blade (coulter), that cuts deep into the soil at grassroots level, together with a shaped board, or "moldboard", that moves the cut soil to one side.

Religion

• The future Archbishops of Canterbury (Mellitus, Justus, and Honorius), and the future Archbishop of York Paulinus, are sent to England by Pope Gregory I to aid Augustine in his missionary work. Gregory writes the decretal Libellus responsionum to Augustine.

• September 13, Ali, central figure in Shia Islam (d. 661)
• Hongren, Chán (Buddhist) patriarch of the Tang dynasty (d. 674)
• Ma Zhou, chancellor of the Tang dynasty (d. 648)
• Sigebert II, king of Austrasia and Burgundy (d. 613)
• Zhangsun, empress of the Tang dynasty (d. 636)

• March 13 or 600 , Leander, bishop of Seville
• Agilulf, bishop of Metz
• Reccared I, king of the Visigoths (b. 559)
• Bertha of Kent, Frankish-born Anglo-Saxon queen consort, canonized (b. c.565) (approximate date)
• Sophia, Byzantine Empress consort (approximate date)