601

Year 601 (DCI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 601 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.

Events

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.

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,<ref>Roger Collins, "Visigothic Spain 409–711", (Blackwell Publishing,2004, p.73</ref> succeeds his father Reccared I as king of the Visigoths. Reccared dies a natural death at the capital in Toledo<ref>Ann Christys, "Christians in Al-Andalus, 711–1000", p. 37 (Curzon Press, 2002). Template:ISBN</ref> after a 15-year reign.

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.

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)