Year 508 (DVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Venantius and Celer (or, less frequently, year 1261 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 508 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

• Emperor Anastasius I formally recognizes Clovis I of the Salian Franks as ruler of Gaul. He sends a Byzantine fleet of 100 warships to raid the coasts of Italy.^[1]

• Battle of Netley: King Cerdic of Wessex moves with an Anglo-Saxon army inland, and defeats the British king, Nudd-Lludd (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle).^[2]
• Winter – All the rivers in England are frozen for more than two months.^[3]

• King Clovis I fails in an effort to take the walled city of Carcassonne (Southern Gaul). He establishes Paris (Lutetia) as his capital and gets baptized, making Roman Catholicism the official religion of the Kingdom of the Franks.
• King Theodoric the Great sends an Ostrogoth army, led by his sword-bearer Theudis, drives the Franks out of Provence, and recovers Septimania (Languedoc) from the Visigoths.

• September 16 – Yuan Di, emperor of the Liang Dynasty (d. 555)
• Xiao Ji, prince of the Liang Dynasty (d. 553)

• Geraint, king of Dumnonia (approximate date)
• Natanleod, king of Wales
• Yuan Xie, prince of the Northern Wei Dynasty
• Yujiulü Futu, ruler (khan) of the Rouran (Mongolia)

Bibliography

• Pryor, John H.; Jeffreys, Elizabeth M. (2006). The Age of the ΔΡΟΜΩΝ: The Byzantine Navy ca. 500–1204. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-15197-0.