Who ruled
- First Göktürk Khaganate Taspar Khan 572–581
- Sasanian Persia Khosrow I 531–579 · Hormizd IV 579–590
- Western Göktürk Khaganate Tardush 576–603
And beyond the steppe
- China Northern Zhou Emperor Xuan 578–579 · Emperor Jing 579–581
- Iran Sasanian Khosrow I 531–579 · Hormizd IV 579–590
- Korea Goguryeo Pyeongwon 559–590
- Byzantium Justinian Tiberius II 578–582
Eastern steppe
-
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
-
Culture · Sogdian colonists found the first towns of Semirech'e, Suyab and Navaket among them, as estates of nobles (450–600)
-
Tiberius tells the envoys of the Avars that the Göktürks lie encamped near Cherson in the Crimea
Siege of Bosporos, 576 · Avars · Byzantium · Western Göktürk Khaganate · The Göktürks before Cherson (579)
China
-
Economy · The Zhou give Taspar a hundred thousand pieces of silk a year and the Qi empty their treasury to match; the surplus goes west with the Sogdians (572–581)
-
Technology · sixth month · The Zhou call up the men of the eastern provinces to repair the Long Wall against the Göktürks
