The Hun period

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521243049.008

7 - The Hun period

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Denis Sinor

Edited by

Denis Sinor

Show author details

Denis Sinor: Affiliation:
Indiana University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

No people of Inner Asia, not even the Mongols, have acquired in European historiography a notoriety similar to that of the Huns, whose name has become synonymous with that of cruel, destructive invaders. Just as the name of the Germanic Vandals has given us the term “vandalism,” the name Hun has been used pejoratively to stigmatize any ferocious, savage enemy. Their greatest ruler, Attila, “the scourge of God,” has become the legendary embodiment of a cruel, merciless leader of barbarians.

There are several reasons why the Huns caught the Western imagination. Firstly, not since Scythian times had any Inner Asian people seriously challenged the equilibrium of the Western World. The Germanic menace to Rome, serious though it was, presented nothing unusual or unexpected – it was part and parcel of Roman political life; the limits of conflict and the patterns of resolution were clearly established. The Huns presented a challenge of a different type: they did not fit into any conventional political category; their very looks, their mode of waging war set them apart from humanity as known to Europe. Secondly, they appeared on the European scene at a time when both the eastern and the western parts of the Roman Empire had to contend with serious internal disorders which weakened their military preparedness. Thirdly, the status quo of the period was disturbed not only by their direct action but even more by their being instrumental in setting into motion the great upheaval of peoples commonly known as the Völkerwanderung.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia , pp. 177 - 205

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521243049.008 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Aalto, Pentti – Pekkanen, Tuomo, 1975, Latin Sources on North-Eastern Eurasia, Asiatische Forschungen vol. 44 (Wiesbaden).Google Scholar

Altheim, Franz, 1962–75, Geschichte der Hunnen (Berlin). [This work has been written with the collaboration of many scholars. Extreme caution is recommended in its use, since it is replete with gratuitous hypotheses].Google Scholar

Ammianus Marcellinus, 1939, With an English Translation by Rolfe, John C. (Loeb Classical Library).Google Scholar

Bachrach, Bernard S., 1973, A History of the Alans in the West (Minneapolis). [The histories of the Huns and Alans are closely intertwined].Google Scholar

Bökönyi, S., 1974, History of Domestic Mammals in Central and Eastern Europe (Budapest).Google Scholar

Buchanan, James, J. – Davis, Harold T., 1967, [translators] Zosimus: Historia Nova. The Decline of Rome (Trinity University Press).Google Scholar

Bury, J. B., 1889. Reprinted 1958, History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I. to the Death of Justinian (Dover Publications).Google Scholar

Chabot, J. B., 1899–1924, Chronique de Michel le Syrien, patriarche Jacobite d'Antioche, (Paris).Google Scholar

Claudian, 1922, With an English translation by Platnauer, Maurice (Loeb Classical Library).Google Scholar

Croke, Brian, 1977, “Evidence for the Hun Invasion of Thrace in a.d. 422,” Greek, Roman, Byzantine Studies 18.Google Scholar

Croke, Brian, 1981, “Anatolius and Nomus: Envoys to Attila,” Byzantinoslavica 42.Google Scholar

Czeglédy, K., 1954, “Monographs on Syriac and Muhammadan Sources in the Literary Remains of M. Kmoskó,” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 4.Google Scholar

Czeglédy, K., 1957, “The Syriac Legend Concerning Alexander the Great,” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 7.Google Scholar

Czeglédy, K., 1971, “Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor on the Nomads,” in Studia Turcica, edited by Ligeti, L.. (Budapest).Google Scholar

De Crespigny, R., 1984, Northern Frontier. The Policies and Strategy of the Later Han Empire, Faculty of Asian Studies Monographs, New Series. 4 (Canberra).Google Scholar

Denis, Sinor, Introduction à l'étude de l'Eurasie Centrale (Wiesbaden 1963).Google Scholar

Doerfer, Gerhard, 1973, “Zur Sprache der Hunnen,” Central Asiatic Journal. [Cf. on the same topic Pritsak 1982].Google Scholar

Dowsett, C.J.F. [translator], 1961, The History of the Caucasian Albanians by Mvsès Dasxurançi (Oxford).Google Scholar

Gordon, C. D., 1960, The Age of Attila. Fifth Century Byzantium and the Barbarians (Ann Arbor, Michigan). [Chapter 3. is devoted to the Huns. Long translations of the Fragments of Priscus are linked by short narrative passages].Google Scholar

Gregory, of Tours, Historica Francorum, edited by Krusch, B., Levison, W., Monumenta Germaniae Historica. SSRM. 1937–51 (Hannover).Google Scholar

Harmatta, J. 1976, “L'apparition des Huns en Europe Orientale,” Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 24.Google Scholar

Haussig, Hans-Wilhelm, 1977 “Das Problem der Herkunft der Hunnen,” Materialia Turcica 3.Google Scholar

Henning, W. B., 1948, “The Date of the Sogdian Ancient Letters,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 12. [Discovers the Sogdian name of the Hsiung-nu. On the conclusions to be drawn from this discovery see Maenchen-Helfen, 1955].CrossRef Google Scholar

Homeyer, H., 1951, Attila der Hunnenkönig von seinen Zeitgenossen dargestellt (Berlin).Google Scholar

Iordanes, , Getica. See Mierow, C. C., 1915.Google Scholar

Lindner, Rudi Paul, 1981, “Nomadism, Horses and Huns,” Past and Present 92.CrossRef Google Scholar

Maenchen-Helfen, Otto, 1944–5, “Huns and Hsiung-nu,” Byzantion 17.Google Scholar

Maenchen-Helfen, Otto, 1955, “Pseudo-Huns,” Central Asiatic Journal I.Google Scholar

Maenchen-Helfen, Otto, 1961, “Archaistic Names of the Hiung-nu,” Central Asiatic Journal 6.Google Scholar

Maenchen-Helfen, Otto, 1973, The World of the Huns (University of California Press). [Without any doubt the major synthesis on the history of the Huns, but it should be borne in mind that it was published posthumously, without the final polish the author would, no doubt, have given to his magnum opus].Google Scholar

Markwart, J., 1930, Südarmenien und die Tigrisquellen nach griechischen und arabischen Geographen (Wien).Google Scholar

Marquart, J., 1901, Ērānšahr nach der Geographie des Ps. Moses Xorenac'i, Abhandlungen der königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Phil. hist. Kl. NF. Bd. III, Nr. 2. [The names Marquart and Markwart refer to the same person. Both works display a dazzling erudition but contain only passing references to the Huns. They are not mentioned in the Hun chapter of Sinor, Introduction].Google Scholar

Mierow, C. C., 1915, The Gothic History of Jordanes (Princeton).Google Scholar

Moravcsik, Gyula, 1926, “Attilas Tod in Geschichte und Sage,” Kőrösi Csoma Archivum 2.Google Scholar

Moravcsik, Gyula, 1946, “Byzantine Christianity and the Magyars in the Period of their Migration,” The American Slavic and East European Review 5. Reprinted in Moravcsik, Gyula, Studia Byzantina (Budapest 1967).CrossRef Google Scholar

Moravcsik, Gyula, 1958, Byzantinoturcica I, Die byzantinischen Quellen der Geschichte der Türkvölker, II, Sprachreste der Türkvölker in den byzantinischen Quellen, 2nd edition (Berlin). [Volume I gives an excellent bibliography on the Huns and provides an indispensable guide to the Byzantine authors in whose works this people is mentioned].Google Scholar

Movsēs, Daskhurantsʿi, The History of the Caucasian Albanians by Movsēs Dasxuranci, trans. Dowsett, C.J.F. (London, 1961).Google Scholar

Németh, Gyula, (editor), 1940a (reprinted 1986) Attila és húnjai (Budapest). [Still very useful].Google Scholar

Németh, Gyula, 1940b “A húnok nyelve,” in Németh, 1940a.Google Scholar

Párducz, Mihály, 1959, “Archäologische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Hunnenzeit in Ungarn,” Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae II.Google Scholar

Párducz, Mihály, 1963, Die ethnischen Probleme der Hunnenzeit in Ungarn, Studia Archaeologica I (Budapest).Google Scholar

Paulus, Diaconus, Historia Langobardorum, edited by Bethmann, and Waitz, Monumenta Germaniae Historica 1878.Google Scholar

Pigulevskaya, N., 1969, “Notes sur les relations de Byzance et des Huns au VIe s.,” Revue des études sud-est européennes 7.Google Scholar

Pritsak, Omeljan, 1982, “The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan,” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 6. [Cf. on the same topic Doerfer 1973].Google Scholar

,Procopius of Caesarea, History of the Wars (1914) edited and translated by Dewing, H. B., vol. I, (Loeb Classical Library).Google Scholar

Sidonius, , Poems and Letters (1936), edited and translated by Anderson, W. B., vol. I (Loeb Classical Library).Google Scholar

Sinor, Denis, 1946–47, “Autour d'une migration de peuples au Ve siècle,” Journal asiatique.Google Scholar

Sinor, Denis, 1978, “The Greed of the Northern Barbarian,” in Aspects of Altaic Civilization II, edited by Clark, Larry V. and Draghi, Paul Alexander, Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series, vol. 134.Google Scholar

Sozomenos, , Ecclesiastical History, in Wace, Henry and Schaf, Philip, A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. II (Oxford and New York 1891).Google Scholar

Stein, Ernest, 1968, Histoire du Bas-Empire, (Amsterdam).Google Scholar

Thompson, E. A., 1946, “Christian Missionaries among the Huns,” Hermathena 67.Google Scholar

Thompson, E. A., 1948, A History of Attila and the Huns (London).Google Scholar

Werner, Joachim, 1956, Beiträge zur Archäologie des Attila-Reiches, Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, NF. 38, A. [Gives good references to the earlier archeological literature].Google Scholar