Editing 566 (section)

==== Byzantine Empire ====
* A [[Byzantine army]], under command of [[Baduarius]], assists the [[Gepids]] in their war against the [[Lombards]]. The [[Byzantine Greeks|Byzantines]] win the first battle in the lower [[Danube]] ([[Moesia]]), but Gepid King [[Cunimund]] refuses to hand back the fortress city of [[Sirmium]] (modern [[Serbia]]), as he had promised. 
* Emperor [[Justin II]], facing an empty [[treasury]], breaks the treaty with the Gepids that has existed since [[Cunimund#Rule|565]]. King [[Alboin]] of the Lombards makes an [[Military alliance|alliance]] with the [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]] under [[Bayan I]], at the expense of tough conditions. They demand a tenth of the Lombards' [[cattle]] and half of the war [[Looting|booty]].
* Justin II sends his cousin [[Justin (consul 540)|Justin]] to [[exile]] in [[Alexandria]], where he is installed as ''[[List of governors of Roman Egypt|Augustal prefect]]'' of [[Diocese of Egypt (Late Antiquity)|Egypt]]. There he is murdered in his sleep, and his head is cut off and brought to [[Constantinople]] (most likely by assignment of Empress [[Sophia (empress)|Sophia]]).<ref>Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992) p. 753–754</ref>