Who ruled
- Byzantium Justin II 565–578
- First Göktürk Khaganate Mukan Khan 553–572
- Northern Zhou Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou 560–578
- Sasanian Persia Khosrow I 531–579
- Western Göktürk Khaganate Istemi 552–576
And beyond the steppe
- China Northern Zhou Emperor Wu 560–578 · Northern Qi Gao Wei 565–577
- Iran Sasanian Khosrow I 531–579
- Korea Goguryeo Pyeongwon 559–590
- Byzantium Justinian Justin II 565–578
Eastern steppe
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Environment · Late Antique Little Ice Age: the cold phase the Altai tree rings define from 536 to about 660 (536–660)
Climate and the steppe empires · First Göktürk Khaganate · Avars
The coldest decade in the Altai is the 540s
Western steppe
Tarim and Sogdiana
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Technology · Göktürk traders offer the Romans iron when Zemarchos reaches Sogdiana; the smiths of the Altai a generation on
China
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A storm damages Mukan's golden tent; his daughter goes to Chang'an and becomes empress of the Northern Zhou
Mukan Khan · Empress Ashina · Northern Zhou · Ashina · Hegemony Wars in Northern China · Music of Empress Ashina (568)
Persia
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Khosrow burns the goods of a Sogdian embassy and poisons a Göktürk one at Ctesiphon
Istemi · Sasanian Persia · Khosrow I · The embassies to Ctesiphon, 568
Byzantium
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Culture · Istemi's letter to Justin II is written in Scythian letters: Old Turkic by one reading, the Sogdian alphabet by the literature on the Sogdians
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summer · Maniakh reaches Constantinople; Justin II receives him and the Göktürks and the Romans become allies
Maniakh · Istemi · Byzantium · Avars · Maniakh's embassy to Constantinople, 568
