Huns
These Asiatic horse warriors are understood to have originated in the Ordos region of Mongolia. Usually identified as the Hsiung-nu (Xiongnu) people in contemporary Chinese records, they may not have formed this group directly but could have been part of a temporary confederation that included them (as could the similarly obscure Göktürks who did not migrate westwards). For whatever reason (probably population pressure on traditional hunting grounds) they began a migration towards the west in the fourth century AD. In the 360s, they left Scythia (also known as Samartia), a wide range of plains to the north of the Black Sea which reached as far as the Caspian Sea. For millennia this region had provided good feed for cattle and good horse-raising opportunities that were vital for its various nomadic dwellers, ranging from the early Indo-Europeans to the Turks, the latter being contemporaries of the Huns.
They first arrived in the West in the 370s, where they clashed with the Germanic Ostrogoths and other barbarians on the northern borders of the Roman empire. They were described at this time as a loose confederation of nomadic tribes. Once they reached the Danube, they settled in Roman-named Pannonia (the Carpathian/Karpatian basin in modern Hungary) and, according to popular myth, eventually the region came to be known after their settlement there (in fact Hungary is named after the Magyars - see the detailed explanation on that page).
It is a matter of contention as to whether the Huns had a single, overall leader before 374. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus, writing in circa 395 states that they had no kings, and that each group was lead by a 'primate'. Perhaps the greater chance of large-scale conquests and the opportunity of facing more organised enemies in Europe forced them to accept a single leader.
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