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HUNS

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 934 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HUNS . This or some similar name is given to at least four peoples, whose identity cannot be regarded as certain. (1) The Huns, who invaded the See also:

East See also:Roman See also:empire from about A.D. 372 to 453 and were most formidable under the leadership of See also:Attila. (2) The Hungarians or See also:Magyars. The Magyars crossed the Carpathians into See also:Hungary in A.D. 898 and mingled with the races they found there. The See also:modern Hungarians (excluding See also:Slavonic elements) are probably a mixture of these Magyars with the remnants of older invaders such as Huns, See also:Petchenegs and Kumans. (3) The See also:White Huns (Aemol Oiivvoc or See also:Ephthalites), who troubled the See also:Persian empire from about 420 to 557 and were known to the Byzantines. (4) The See also:Minas, who invaded See also:India during the same See also:period. There is not much doubt that the third and See also:fourth of these tribes are the same, and it is quite likely that the Magyars are descended from the See also:horde which sent forth the Huns in the 4th See also:century, but it is not demonstrable. Neither can it be proved that the Huns and Magyars belonged either physically or linguistically to the same See also:section as the lianas and Ephthalites.

But the occurrence of the name in both India and See also:

Europe is prima facie See also:evidence in favour of a connexion between those who See also:bore it, for, though civilized races often lumped all their See also:barbarian neighbours together under one See also:general name, it would seem that, when the same name is applied independently to similar invaders in both India and eastern Europe, the only explanation can be that they gave themselves that name, and this fact probably indicates that they were members of the same tribe or See also:group. What we know of the See also:history and See also:distribution of the Huns does not conflict with this See also:idea. They appear in Europe towards the end of the 4th century and the Ephthalites and Hunas in western See also:Asia about fifty years later. It may be supposed that some defeat in See also:China (and the See also:Chinese were successful in See also:driving back the Hiung-nu in the 1st century A.D.) had sent them westwards some See also:time earlier. One See also:body remained in Transoxiana and, after resting for a time, pushed their way through the mountains into See also:Afghanistan and India, exactly as the Yue-Chi had done before them. Another See also:division pressed farther westwards and probably made its See also:head-quarters near the See also:northern end of the See also:Caspian See also:Sea and the See also:southern See also:part of the Ural Mountains. It was from here that the Huns invaded Europe, and when their See also:power collapsed, after the See also:death of Attila, many of them may have returned to their See also:original haunts. Possibly the Bulgarians and See also:Khazars were offshoots of the same horde. The Magyars may very well have gradually spread first to the See also:Don and then beyond it, until in the 9th century they entered Hungary. But this See also:sketch of possible migrations is largely conjectural, and authorities are not even agreed as to the See also:branch of the Turanians to which the Huns should be referred. The See also:physical characteristics of these nomadic armies were very variable, since they continually increased their See also:numbers by slaves, See also:women and soldiers of See also:fortune See also:drawn from all the surrounding races. The See also:language of the Magyars is Finno-Ugric and most nearly allied to the speech of the See also:Ostiaks now found on the east of the Ural, but we have no See also:warrant for assuming that the Huns, and still less that the Ephthalites and Rilnas, spoke the same language.

Neither can we assume that the Huns and Hflnas are the same as the Hiung-nu of the Chinese. The names may be identical, but it is not certain, for in Hun may lurk some such designation as the ten (See also:

Turkish on or isn) tribes. Also Hiung-nu seems to be the name of warlike nomads in general, not of a particular section. Again the Finnish See also:languages spoken in various parts of See also:Russia and more or less allied to Magyar must have spread gradually westwards from the Urals, and their development and See also:diffusion seem to postulate a See also:long period (for the history of the Finns shows that they were not See also:mobile like the See also:Turks and See also:Mongols), so that the ancestral language from which See also:spring Finnish and Magyar can hardly have been brought across Asia after the See also:Christian era. The warlike and vigorous See also:temper of the Huns has led many writers to regard them as Turks. The Turks were perhaps not distinguished by name or institutions from other tribes before the 5th century, but the Huns may have been an earlier offshoot of the same stock. Apart from this the Hungarians may have received an infusion of Turkish See also:blood not only from the Osmanlis but from the Kumans and other tribes who settled in the See also:country. History.—The See also:authentic history of the Huns in Europe practically begins about the See also:year A.U. 372, when under a See also:leader named Balamir (or, according to some See also:MSS., Balamber) they began a westward See also:movement from their settlements in the See also:steppes lying to the See also:north of the Caspian. After crushing, or compelling the See also:alliance of, various nations unknown to fame (Alpilzuri, Alcidzuri, Himari, Tuncarsi, Boisci), they at length reached the See also:Alani, a powerful nation which had its seat between the See also:Volga and the Don; these also, after a struggle, they defeated and finally enlisted in their service. They then proceeded, in 374, to invade the empire of the See also:Ostrogoths (Greutungi), ruled over by the aged See also:Ermanaric, or Hermanric, who died (perhaps by his own See also:hand) while the See also:critical attack was still impending. Under his son Hunimund a section of his subjects promptly made a humiliating See also:peace; under Withemir (Winithar), however, who succeeded him in the larger part of his dominions, an armed resistance was organized; but it resulted only in repeated defeat, and finally in the death of the See also:king.

The representatives of his son Witheric put an end to the conflict by accepting the See also:

condition of vassalage. Balamir now directed his victorious arms still farther westward against that portion of the Visigothic nation (or Tervingi) which acknowledged the authority of See also:Athanaric. The latter entrenched himself on the frontier which had separated him from the Ostrogoths, behind the " Greutungrampart " and the See also:Dniester; but he was surprised by the enemy, who forded the See also:river in the See also:night, See also:fell suddenly upon his See also:camp, and compelled him to abandon his position. Athanaric next attempted to establish himself in the territory between the Pruth and the See also:Danube, and with this See also:object set about heightening the old Roman See also:wall which See also:Trajan had erected in north-eastern See also:Dacia; before his fortifications, however, were See also:complete, the Iluns were again upon him, and without a See also:battle he was forced to See also:retreat to the Danube. The See also:remainder of the Visigoths, under Alavivus and Fritigern, now began to seek, and ultimately were successful in obtaining (376), the permission of the See also:emperor See also:Valens to See also:settle in See also:Thrace; Athanaric meanwhile took See also:refuge in Transylvania, thus abandoning the See also:field without any serious struggle to the irresistible Huns. For more than fifty years the Roman See also:world was undisturbed by any aggressive See also:act on the part of the new invaders, who contented themselves with over-powering various tribes which lived to the north of the Danube. In some instances, in fact, the Huns See also:lent their aid to the See also:Romans against third parties; thus in 404–405 certain Hunnic tribes, under a See also:chief or king named Uldin, assisted See also:Honorius in the struggle with Radagaisus (Ratigar) and his Ostrogoths, and took a prominent part in the decisive battle fought in the neighbourhood of See also:Florence. Once indeed, in 409, they are said to have crossed the Danube and invaded See also:Bulgaria under perhaps the same chief (Uldin), but extensive desertions soon compelled a retreat. About the year 432 a Hunnic king, Ruas or Rugulas, made himself of such importance that he received from See also:Theodosius II. an See also:annual See also:stipend or See also:tribute of 350 pounds of See also:gold (£14,000), along with the See also:rank of Roman general. Quarrels soon arose, partly out of the circumstance that the Romans had sought to make alliances with certain Danubian tribes which Ruas See also:chose to regard as properly subject to himself, partly also because some of the undoubted subjects of the Hun had found refuge on Roman territory; and Theodosius, in reply to an indignant and insulting See also:message which he had received about this cause933 of dispute, was preparing to send off a See also:special See also:embassy when tidings arrived that Ruas was dead and that he had been succeeded in his See also:kingdom by Attila and Bleda, the two sons of his See also:brother Mundzuk (433)• Shortly afterwards the treaty of Margus (not far from the modern See also:Belgrade), where both sides negotiated on horseback, was ratified. By its stipulations the yearly stipendium or tribute payable to Attila by the Romans was doubled; the fugitives were to be surrendered, or a See also:fine of 08 to be paid for each of those who should be missing; See also:free markets, open to Hun and Roman alike, were to be instituted; and any tribe with which Attila might be at any time at See also:war was thereby to be held as excluded from alliance with See also:Rome. For eight years afterwards there was peace so far as the Romans were concerned; and it was probably during this period that the Huns proceeded to the extensive conquests to which the See also:con-temporary historian See also:Priscus so vaguely alludes in the words: " He (Attila) has made the whole of See also:Scythia his own, he has laid the Roman empire under tribute, and he thinks of renewing his attacks upon See also:Persia.

The road to that eastern kingdom is not untrodden by the Huns; already they have marched fifteen days from a certain See also:

lake, and have ravaged See also:Media." They also appear before the end of this See also:interval to have pushed westward as far as to the See also:Rhone, and to have come into conflict with the Burgundians. Overt acts of hostility, how-ever, occurred against the Eastern empire when the See also:town of Margus (by the treachery of its See also:bishop) was seized and sacked (441), and against the Western when Sirmium was invested and taken. In 445 Bleda died, and two years afterwards Attila, now See also:sole ruler, undertook one of his most important expeditions against the Eastern empire; on this occasion he pushed southwards as far as See also:Thermopylae, See also:Gallipoli and the walls of See also:Constantinople; peace was cheaply See also:purchased by tripling the yearly tribute (which accordingly now stood at 2100 pounds of gold, or £84,000 See also:sterling) and by the See also:payment of a heavy See also:indemnity. In 448 again occurred various See also:diplomatic negotiations, and especially the embassy of Maximinus, of which many curious details have been recorded by Priscus his See also:companion. Then followed, in 451, that westward movement across the See also:Rhine which was only arrested at last, with terrible slaughter, on the Catalaunian plains (according to See also:common belief, in the neighbourhood of the modern Chalons, but more probably at a point some 5o M. to the See also:south-east, near Mery-sur-See also:Seine). The following year (452), that of the See also:Italian See also:campaign, was marked by such events as the See also:sack of See also:Aquileia, the destruction of the cities of See also:Venetia, and finally, on the See also:banks of the Mincio, that See also:historical interview with See also:Pope See also:Leo I. which resulted in the return of Attila to See also:Pannonia, where in 453 he died (see ATTILA). Almost immediately after-wards the empire he had amassed rather than consolidated fell to pieces. His too numerous sons began to See also:quarrel about their See also:inheritance, while Ardaric, the king of the Gepidae, was placing himself at the head of a general revolt of the dependent nations. The inevitable struggle came to a crisis near the river Netad in Pannonia, in a battle in which 30,000 of the Huns and their confederates, including Ellak, Attila's eldest son, were slain. The nation, thus broken, rapidly dispersed, exactly as the White Huns did after a similar defeat about a See also:hundred years later. One horde settled under Roman See also:protection in Little Scythia (the Dobrudzha), others in Dacia Ripensis (on the confines of See also:Servia and Bulgaria) or on the southern See also:borders of Pannonia. Many, however, appear to have returned to what is now South Russia, and may perhaps have taken part in the ethnical combinations which produced the Bulgarians.

The chief original authorities are See also:

Ammianus See also:Marcellinus, Priscus, Jordanes, See also:Procopius, Sidonius See also:Apollinaris and See also:Menander See also:Protector. See also See also:Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; J. B. See also:Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire (1889); H. H. Howorth, History of the Mongols (1876–1888) ; J. See also:Hodgkin, See also:Italy and her Invaders (1892); and articles in the Revue orientate pour See also:les etudes Ouralaltaiques. For the Chinese See also:sources see E. H. See also:Parker, A Thousand Years of the Tartars (1905), and numerous articles by the same author in the See also:Asiatic Quarterly; also articles by Chavannes, O. Franke, See also:Stein and others in various learned See also:periodicals. For the literature on the White Huns see EPHTHALITES.

(C.

End of Article: HUNS

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