404 (year)

The year 404 CE in the late Roman Empire, notable for the decline of gladiatorial games and the exile of John Chrysostom; a Julian leap year with broader cultural and political significance.

404 CE denotes a year in the late Roman Empire, recorded in the Julian calendar as a leap year that began on a Friday. It sits within the period often described as the empire's transformation from classical Roman institutions toward increasingly Christianized imperial rule. For general calendrical context see related resources.

Calendar and naming

In contemporary terms the year is identified by its placement in the Anno Domini system used by later chroniclers, but inhabitants of the time would more commonly refer to it by the names of serving Roman consuls or by the regnal year of a reigning emperor. Modern reference notes it as a Julian leap year beginning on Friday; chronology and dating conventions vary in different scholarly traditions.

Notable events

End of public gladiatorial games: Traditional accounts attribute the cessation of official gladiatorial combats in Rome to reactions following the killing of a Christian monk, often named Telemachus, who is said to have intervened in an arena and been slain. The emperor subsequently is reported to have prohibited the games, marking a symbolic change in Roman public life.
John Chrysostom: The prominent bishop of Constantinople, John Chrysostom, was deposed and sent into exile amid court politics and conflicts with imperial and ecclesiastical authorities; this shaped ecclesiastical controversies and hagiographic literature in the Eastern church.
Political context: The Roman world remained divided between eastern and western courts, with growing reliance on federated barbarian troops and intensifying local power of military leaders and court officials.

The record for this year is fragmentary and preserved through later historians and ecclesiastical sources, which sometimes blend fact with hagiography and polemic. As a result, specific details and motives—especially for dramatic episodes like arena interventions—are treated cautiously by modern scholars.

Legacy: 404 stands as a marker of cultural transition in late antiquity and is sometimes encountered today in other contexts (for example, as a modern computer error code). For an overview of primary narratives and subsequent interpretations consult compilations and translations available through standard reference collections: see more.