409

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Coin of Priscus Attalus

Year 409 (CDIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Theodosius (or, less frequently, year 1162 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 409 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

By place

Roman Empire

• Spring – Gerontius, Roman general (magister militum), who had been a partisan of Constantine III revolts in Hispania. He elevates Maximus, his domesticus, as emperor.
• October 13 – The Vandals, led by king Gunderic, cross the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula. They receive land from the Romans, as foederati, in Baetica (Southern Spain). The Alans occupy lands in Lusitania and the Suebi controlled parts of Gallaecia (modern Portugal).
• The Visigothic king Alaric I lays siege to Rome a second time, bringing the inhabitants close to starvation. Emperor Honorius, safe in inaccessible Ravenna, refuses to negotiate for peace, despite repeated offers from Alaric. He comes to terms with the Senate and sets up a rival emperor, Priscus Attalus, prefect (praefectus urbi) of the city.
• Honorius agrees that sons of prominent families at court in Ravenna be sent beyond the Danube as hostages; in return, later he calls up ten thousand Hun mercenaries.^[1]
• Famine strikes Hispania, Gaul and the Italian Peninsula.

Asia

• Ming Yuan Di, age 17, succeeds Dao Wu di as ruler of the Chinese Northern Wei (see Northern dynasties).

Births

• Daniel the Stylite, Christian saint (approximate date)
• Liu Yikang, prince of the Liu Song Dynasty (d. 451)

Deaths

• Gao Yun, emperor of Northern Yan
• Li, empress and wife of Gao Yun
• Mallius Theodorus, Roman consul (approximate date)
• Serena, noblewoman and wife of Stilicho
• Dao Wu Di, emperor of Northern Wei (b. 371)

References