Theodoric the Ostrogoth, threatening Constantinople, is cunningly diverted by the emperor into invading Italy

Theodoric wins Ravenna from Odoacer - by inviting Odoacer to a banquet and murdering him during the meal

Dionysius Exiguus, commissioned by the pope to improve chronology, makes an error of at least four years in his selected event for AD 1

St Benedict gathers fellow hermits at Subiaco into a series of small monasteries

Boethius, in prison in Pavia and awaiting execution, writes the Consolation of Philosophy

By the end of his long reign Theodoric amply justifies his title 'the Great' and his place in legend as Dietrich von Bern

St Benedict founds a monastery at Monte Cassino and writes a Rule for the monks which becomes the basis of the Benedictine order

Belisarius lands in Sicily at the start of a five-year campaign to recover Ravenna for the Byzantine emperor

Justinian and Theodora, each with a retinue of attendants, face each other in mosaic from the walls of San Vitale in Ravenna

The Lombards invade northern Italy, and within four years occupy it as far south as the Po

Fugitives from the Lombard invasion of northern Italy take refuge on islands in the Venetian lagoon - and become the founders of Venice

Byzantine Italy is brought under a new administration, or exarchate, based in Ravenna

Pope Gregory I negotiates with the Lombards who are threatening Rome

St Columban founds a monastery at Bobbio, the furthest outpost of Celtic Christianity

The Venetians for the first time elect their own doge, acting independently of the Byzantine governor in Ravenna

Pepin III, after recovering Byzantine territories in Italy from the Lombards, hands control of the region to the pope in Rome

After two campaigns in Lombardy, Charlemagne establishes himself as king of the Lombards in northern Italy

In St Peter's in Rome, on Christmas Day, pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor - supposedly to Charlemagne's surprise

The Venetians move their administration from the island of Torcello to the Rialto

The Arabs get a foothold in Sicily and begin a slow process, not complete till AD 965, of squeezing the Byzantines out of the island

The Venetians, acquiring from Alexandria some bones believed to be those of St Mark, build St Mark's to house the valuable relic

Medieval Europe's first institute of higher education is established, with the founding of the medical school at Salerno

The imperial coronation of Otto I by Pope John XII in St Peter's puts in place the formal role of a Holy Roman emperor

Pope Gregory VII decrees that only the church may make ecclesiastical appointments, thus initiating the investiture controversy between pope and emperor

The emperor Henry IV stands as a penitent outside the pope's castle at Canossa, so as to be released from excommunication.