590

By place

Byzantine Empire

• Byzantine–Sassanid War: Emperor Maurice defeats the Persian forces under Bahrām Chobin at Nisibis, and drives them back into Armenia.
• Comentiolus, commander of the eastern army, receives the legitimate Persian king, Khosrau II, as a refugee in his headquarters at Hierapolis.
• Maurice establishes the Exarchate of Carthage in Africa. He combines the civil authority of a praetorian prefect and the military authority, based at Carthage.
• March 26 - Theodosius, eldest son of Maurice, is proclaimed as co-emperor. He becomes his father's heir to the Byzantine throne.
• Stephen I succeeds his father Guaram I as king of Iberia .

  Europe

• The Franks and Burgundians under King Guntram invade Italy. They capture the cities Milan and Verona, but are forced to leave by a plague outbreak in the Po Valley.
• The Franks again invade Italy; they capture Modena and Mantua. Several Lombard dukes defect: Gisulf I, duke of Friuli, is defeated and replaced by his son Gisulf II.
• September 5 - King Authari dies after a six-year reign, and is succeeded by Agilulf, duke of Turin, who marries his widow Theodelinda.
• Frankish rebellion led by Basina, daughter of Chilperic I.

  Britain

• Æthelberht succeeds his father Eormenric as king of Kent.
• Siege of Lindisfarne: A Brythonic coalition lays siege to King Hussa of Bernicia at Lindisfarne Castle.
• Owain mab Urien succeeds his father Urien, as Brythonic king of Rheged in Northern England.

  Persia

• Spring - King Hormizd IV dismisses Bahrām Chobin as commander. He revolts and marches with the support of the Persian army towards Ctesiphon.
• February 15 - Hormizd IV is deposed and assassinated by Persian nobles. Having ruled since 579, he is succeeded by his son Khosrau II as king of the Persian Empire.
• September - Bahrām Chobin defeats the inferior forces of Khosrau II near Ctesiphon. He seizes the throne and proclaims himself as king Bahrām IV of Persia.

  Asia

• Kadungon becomes king of the Pandyan Kingdom in South India.
• Yeongyang becomes ruler of the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo.

  By topic

Religion

• February 7 - Pope Pelagius II falls victim to the plague that devastated Rome. He is succeeded by Gregory I, age 50, as the 64th pope, and the first from a monastic background.
• Egidius, bishop of Reims, is tried at Metz before a council of bishops for a conspiracy against King Childebert II; he is found guilty and exiled to Strasbourg.
• Gregory I begins a vigorous program of rebuilding aqueducts and restoring Rome. He feeds the citizens with doles of grain, as under Roman imperial rule.
• Columbanus, Irish missionary, obtains from King Guntram the Gallo-Roman castle Luxovium, where he founds the Abbey of Luxeuil.
• John of Biclaro, Visigoth chronicler, finishes his "Chronicle" before he is appointed bishop of Girona.