655

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	6th century – 7th century – 8th century
Decades:	620s  630s  640s  – 650s –  660s  670s  680s
Years:	652 653 654 – 655 – 656 657 658

655 by topic

Politics

State leaders – Sovereign states

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishment and disestablishment categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

655 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	655 DCLV
Ab urbe condita	1408
Armenian calendar	104 ԹՎ ՃԴ
Assyrian calendar	5405
Bengali calendar	62
Berber calendar	1605
Buddhist calendar	1199
Burmese calendar	17
Byzantine calendar	6163–6164
Chinese calendar	甲寅年 (Wood Tiger) 3351 or 3291     — to — 乙卯年 (Wood Rabbit) 3352 or 3292
Coptic calendar	371–372
Discordian calendar	1821
Ethiopian calendar	647–648
Hebrew calendar	4415–4416
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	711–712
- Shaka Samvat	577–578
- Kali Yuga	3756–3757
Holocene calendar	10655
Iranian calendar	33–34
Islamic calendar	34–35
Japanese calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	655 DCLV
Korean calendar	2988
Minguo calendar	1257 before ROC 民前1257年
Seleucid era	966/967 AG
Thai solar calendar	1197–1198

Anglo-Saxon England (c. 650)

Year 655 (DCLV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 655 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

Byzantine Empire

• Battle of the Masts: Emperor Constans II personally commands the Byzantine fleet (500 ships) and sets off to challenge the Arab navy. He sails to the province of Lycia (Turkey) in the southern region of Asia Minor. The two forces meet off the coast of Mount Phoenix, near the harbour of Phoenix (modern Finike).^[1] The Arabs under Abdullah ibn Sa'ad are victorious in battle, although losses are heavy for both sides. Constans barely escapes to Constantinople.^[2]

Britain

• November 15 – Battle of the Winwaed: King Oswiu of Bernicia defeats his rival, king Penda of Mercia at Cock Beck, near what later will be Leeds (Yorkshire). Kings Cadafael Cadomedd of Gwynedd and Œthelwald of Deira, allies of Mercia, withdrew their forces before the battle begins. It marks the defeat of the last credible pagan force in England. It also sows the seeds which would lead to Anglo-Saxon acceptance of the Catholic Church (approximate date).
• Oswiu becomes overlord (bretwalda) over much of Great Britain. He establishes himself as king of Mercia, setting up his son-in-law, Penda's son Peada as a subject king over Middle Anglia.

Asia

• Empress Empress Kōgyoku re-ascends to the throne of Japan, beginning a new reign as Saimei-tennō.
• Arab armies conquer Khurasan (Iran) and the Silk Road along Transoxiana (Central Asia).^[3]
• King Vikramaditya I of Chalukya (India) re-unites the kingdom after defeating his brothers.

By topic

Religion

• May 15 – Pope Martin I is banished to Chersonesos Taurica (Ukraine). He dies later in the Crimean Peninsula after a 6-year reign, leaving Eugene I as the uncontested pope (see 654).
• Peada founds Peterborough Cathedral (Province of Canterbury). It become one of the first centres of Christianity in England. Deusdedit is consecrated to archbishop of Canterbury.

Births

• John VI, pope of Rome (d. 705)

Deaths

• November 15 – Æthelhere, king of East Anglia
• Cadafael Cadomedd, king of Gwynedd
• Didier of Cahors, Frankish bishop
• Foillan, Irish missionary (approximate date)
• Loingsech mac Colmáin, king of Connacht (Ireland)
• November 15 – Penda, king of Mercia
• September 16 – Pope Martin I
• Theodore Rshtuni, Armenian general
• Wang, empress of the Tang dynasty
• Xiao, concubine of Gao Zong

References

1. Probably Mount Olympos south of Antalya, see "Olympus Phoinikous Mons" in Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, map 65, D4
2. Warren Treadgold, A history of the Byzantine State and Society, Stanford University Press 1997, p. 314. ISBN 0-8047-2630-2
3. Roberts, J: "History of the World". Penguin, 1994