499 CE: ARYABHATA, 23, finishes writing ARYABHATIYA

–probably in central or southern India

Aryabhata (476 CE–550 CE) is the first in the line of great mathematician–astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and astronomy. Aryabhata is the father of the Hindu–Arabic (decimal) number system, which has, of course, become universal today.

His most famous work, aside from the Aryabhatiya just–noted, is the Arya–Siddhanta.

500 CE: RAVINA DIES

Death of Ravina, head of the Sura Academy, considered to be the last of the Amoraim (the Babylonian sages of that generation).

510 CE: (SAINT) RUSPE and “ETERNAL FIRE” FOR the JEWS

(Saint) Fulgentius of Ruspe (c. 467–533 CE), Bishop of Ruspe, North Africa, (later canonized as a Catholic (saint) in his “Writings”:

“Hold most firmly and no doubt that not all the pagans, but also all the Jews, heretics and schismatics, who depart from the present life outside the Catholic Church, are about to go into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

527 CE: JUSTINIAN

Justinian from the Eastern Roman Empire attempts to wrest control of major portions of the western empire, including the reconquest of Rome.