Huns

Hunnic Empire
370s–469
The Hunnic Empire under Attila
Capital		Not specified
Languages		Hunnic Gothic Various tribal languages
Government		Tribal Confederation
High King
•	370s	Balamber
•	c. 435-445	Attila and Bleda
•	445-453	Attila
•	453-469	Dengizich
History
•	Huns appear north-west of the Caspian Sea	pre 370s
•	Balamber began uniting the Huns and Germanic tribes	370s
•	Attila and Bleda become co-rulers of the united tribes	437
•	Death of Bleda, Attila becomes sole ruler	445
•	Battle of the Catalaunian Plains	451
•	Invasion of northern Italy	452
•	Battle of Nedao	454
•	Dengizich, son of Attila, dies	469
Today part of		Hungary  Ukraine  Moldova  Russia  Romania  Slovakia  Czech Republic  Poland  Germany  Belarus  Serbia  Austria  Lithuania  Croatia  Bulgaria

The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia between the 1st century AD and the 7th century AD. As per European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part of Scythia at the time; the Huns' arrival is associated with the migration westward of a Scythian people, the Alans. In 91 AD, the Huns were said to be living near the Caspian Sea and by about 150 had migrated southeast into the Caucasus. By 370, the Huns had established a vast, if short-lived, dominion in Europe.

In the 18th century, the French scholar Joseph de Guignes became the first to propose a link between the Huns and the Xiongnu people, who were northern neighbours of China in the 3rd century BC. Since Guignes' time, considerable scholarly effort has been devoted to investigating such a connection. However, there is no scholarly consensus on a direct connection between the dominant element of the Xiongnu and that of the Huns.Priscus, a 5th-century Roman diplomat and Greek historian, mentions that the Huns had a language of their own; little of it has survived and its relationships have mainly been considered the Altaic languages. Numerous other ethnic groups were included under Attila's rule, including very many speakers of Gothic, which some modern scholars describe as a lingua franca of the Empire. Their main military technique was mounted archery.