阴水兔年 (female Water-Rabbit) 530 or 149 or −623 — to — 阳木龙年 (male Wood-Dragon) 531 or 150 or −622
Year 404 (CDIV) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Aristaenetus (or, less frequently, year 1157 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 404 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Dominicalendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.
Events
By place
Roman Empire
January 1 – Last known gladiator fight in Rome: This date is usually given as the date of the martyrdom of Saint Telemachus, a Christian monk who was stoned by the crowd for trying to stop a gladiators' fight in a Roman amphitheatre.
Fravitta, a Goth serving the Eastern Roman Empire as a high-ranking general, is executed on the behest of a powerful official named Ioannes. Fravitta is executed because he accused Ioannes of pitting Emperor Arcadius and Emperor Honorius (of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, respectively) against each other. The execution of Fravitta results in the Eastern Roman Empire losing one of their most loyal and competent generals.[1] (404 or 405)
The ChineseBuddhist monk Huiyuan, who founded the Pure Land Buddhism sect and the monastery on Mount Lushan, writes the book On Why Monks Do Not Bow Down Before Kings in this year. In his book he argues that although the Buddhist clergy should remain independent and undisturbed by politics, the Buddhist laymen nonetheless make good subjects under monarchs, due to their fear of retribution of karma and desire to be reborn in paradise.