602

Decades: 550s 560s 570s 580s 590s - 600s - 610s 620s 630s 640s 650s

Years: 597 598 599 600 601 - 602 - 603 604 605 606 607

• Phocas kills Byzantine Emperor Maurice I and makes himself emperor
• Beginning of a series of wars between the Byzantine Empire and the Sassanids

• Mu'awiyah, founder of the Umayyad Dynasty of caliphs (approximate date)
• Xuanzang, famous Chinese Buddhist monk.
• Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury

• Maurice I, Eastern Roman Emperor