[Verginius Rufus]

A.D. 538? What happened in that year? I think you may mean 568 (beginning of the Lombard conquest of Italy). Between 535 and 554 Justinian I reconquered Italy from the Ostrogoths. He had earlier retaken North Africa, and also managed the reconquest of a small part of Spain. North Africa wasn't lost to the Arabs until the very end of the 7th century, and bits of Italy remained under Byzantine control until 1071.

One of the names Theodore Roosevelt called Woodrow Wilson in 1915 (when he refused to ask for a declaration of war after the sinking of the Lusitania) was "Byzantine logothete." Western Europe may have been relatively backward and uncivilized during the Dark Ages, but at least they didn't have no steenking logothetes.

[muawiyah]

538 is the year of a massive explosion of Krakatoa. Before that Sumatra and Java were one island. After that they were two islands. The Chinese recorded it as "a large noise".

The amount of dust tossed into the atmosphere created a multi-year Fimbul Winter in Europe which resulted in the fall of civilization and a substantial depopulation of the area.

It's pretty clear that the Dark Age began that year because of the virtual disappearance of written records except in the Sunny South.

Have no idea what the Lombards were up to, but some barbarians were slow in appreciating that the climate had changed and there was no one left around to steal stuff from.

[muawiyah]

535 AD, (excuse me), and about 538 AD we had Justinians Plague.

Every now and then someone mentions the disappearance of Christians in North Africa. Except for Egypt there was a population drop in North Africa, and most of the Christians disappeared leaving the territory to the hardier herdsmen who lived in the Atlas mountains.

Islam came later!

There are still Christians in Egypt!