304
Year 304 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. It was known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian. The denomination 304 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
- Caesar Galerius, perhaps accompanied by Emperor Diocletian, wins his fourth and final victory over the Carpi. Many of the surviving Carpi and Bastarnae are resettled in the Roman Empire, where they are split up. The Bastarnae are not attested after this time, and the Carpi are attested only once more in the 310s.
- Diocletian, while inspecting the Danube border, becomes seriously ill.
- Caesar Constantius I besieges a Germanic raiding force on an island in the Rhine and forces their surrender.
Asia
- Sixteen Kingdoms: The Xiongnu establishes the Han-Zhao state under Liu Yuan, often seen as the start of the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians.
- Cheng-Han earns its independence from Jin dynasty.
- Biryu becomes king of the Korean kingdom of Baekje.
By topic
Religion
- October 25 - Pope Marcellinus dies at Rome after an 8-year reign. The papal throne will remain vacant until 308.
Deaths
- January 21 - Saint Agnes of Rome
- March 19/20 - Sima Ai, Chinese prince of the Jin dynasty
- May 12 - Saint Pancras of Rome
- c. October? - Bunseo of Baekje, king of Baekje
- c. August 10 - Saint Philomena
- October 25 - Pope Marcellinus
- December 25 - Saint Anastasia of Sirmium
- Date unknown
- * Saint Afra
- * Saints Agape, Chionia, and Irene
- * Saint Alban
- * Saint Florian
- * Saint Gorgonius of Nicomedia
- * Saint Juliana of Nicomedia
- * Saint Lucy of Syracuse
- * Saint Margaret the Virgin
- * Saints Theodora and Didymus
- * Saint Vincent of Saragossa