After the Huns in the 4th century invaded the territories of the Gothic King Ermanaric, which at its peak stretched between the Danube and the Volga river, and from the Black to the Baltic Sea, thousands of Goths fled into the Balkans, defeating the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople and sacking Rome in 410, while thousands of Germans were crossing the Rhine.

While many Goths were subdued and joined the ranks of the Huns, a group of Goths led by Fritigern fled across the Danube and revolted against the Roman Empire, winning a decisive victory at the Battle of Adrianople.

The Visigoths, for example, were converted to Arian Christianity around 360, even before they were pushed into imperial territory by the expansion of the Huns.

De Guignes focused on the genealogy of political entities and gave little attention to whether the Huns were the physical descendants of the Xiongnu.

Ammianus and Jordanes mention the Huns as scarifying infants ' faces to prevent the later growth of beards ; the Chinese recorded General Ran Min having led a military campaign against a faction of the Xiongnu Confederation called the Jie, who were described as having full beards, around Ye in 349 AD.

He lists the beginning of the 2nd century, although it is not known for certain if these people were the Huns.

Jordanes reports that the Huns were led at this time by Balamber while modern historians question his existence, seeing instead an invention by the Goths to explain who defeated them.

The Barbarian invasions of the 5th century were triggered by the destruction of the Gothic kingdoms by the Huns in 372-375.

The forces of Emperor Theodosius were fully committed in the West so the Huns moved unopposed until the end of 398 when the eunuch Eutropius gathered together a force composed of Romans and Goths and succeeded in restoring peace.

Many Huns were employed as mercenaries by both East and West Romans and by the Goths.

These were countered by another small band of Huns hired by Honorius ' minister Olympius.

Once disorganized, the Huns were absorbed by more organized polities.

However, given that the Huns were a political creation, and not a consolidated people, or nation, their defeat in 454 marked the end of that political creation.

Some Huns remained in Pannonia for some time before they were slaughtered by Goths.

Indeed, subsequently, new confederations appear such as Kutrigur, Utigur, Onogur / ( Onoghur ), Sarigur, etc., which were collectively called " Huns "," Bulgarian Huns ", or " Bulgars ".

All surviving accounts were written by enemies of the Huns, and none describe the Huns as attractive either morally or in appearance.

Jordanes also recounted how Priscus had described Attila the Hun, the Emperor of the Huns from 434-453, as: " Short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head ; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with grey ; and he had a flat nose and tanned skin, showing evidence of his origin.

Like so many other people, the Huns inflicted wounds on their live flesh as a sign of grief when their kinsmen were dying.

Maenchen-Helfen held that many of the tribal names among the Huns were Turkic.

The Germanic Goths and Asiatic Huns were the first to arrive, invading in mid-century ; the Avars attacked in AD 570 ; and the Croatian tribes invaded in the early 7th century.

As early as 380, a group of Huns was given Foederati status and allowed to settle in Pannonia.

Uldin, the first Hun known by name, headed a group of Huns and Alans fighting against Radagaisus in defense of Italy.

This resulted in many desertions from Uldin's group of Huns.

English scholar Peter Heather called the Huns " the first group of Turkic, as opposed to Iranian, nomads to have intruded into Europe ".

* Some 30, 000 Asian tribespeople migrate from the steppes to the west with 40, 000 horses and 100, 000 cattle, joining with Iranian tribespeople and with Mongols from the Siberian forests to form a group that will be known in Europe as the Huns.

The term Turkic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people including existing societies such as the Turkish, Azerbaijani, Chuvashes, Kazakhs, Tatars, Kyrgyz, Turkmens, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Bashkirs, Qashqai, Gagauzs, Yakuts, Turkic Karaites, Krymchaks, Karakalpaks, Karachays, Balkars, Nogais and as well as past civilizations such as the Göktürks, Kumans, Kipchaks, Avars, Bulgars, Turgeshes, Khazars, Seljuk Turks, Ottoman Turks, Mamluks, Timurids and possibly Huns and the Xiongnu.

During the winter of 466 / 467 he defeated a group of Huns, led by Hormidac, who had crossed the frozen Danube and were pillaging the Dacia.

The majority group is that of Rajputs and Jats who are the partial descendants of Sakas, Kushans and Huns.

It appears from Chinese sources that a Yeniseian group might have been among the peoples that made up the tribal confederation known as the Xiongnu, who have traditionally been considered the ancestors of the Huns, but these suggestions are difficult to substantiate due to the paucity of data.

A small group of these women defied kings Wanius and Melga of the Picts and the Huns, who attempted to have intercourse with them.

For example, one cartoon panel depicts the barbarism of a group of Huns who had elephants herded off a cliff for their sadistic enjoyment.

Another group of Goths fleeing the Huns, led by one Radagaisus, devastated the north of Italy for six months before Stilicho could muster enough forces to take the field against them.

Some Hungarian people share the belief that the Székelys, a Hungarian ethnic group living in modern-day Transylvania, are descended from a group of Huns who remained in the Carpathian Basin after 454 ; this myth was recorded in the medieval Gesta Hungarorum.

He was succeeded by his brother, Rugila who became the leader of the Hun confederation, uniting the Huns into a cohesive group with a common purpose.

More recent theories view the nomadic confederacies, such as the Huns, as the formation of several different cultural, political and linguistic entities that could dissolve as quickly as they formed, entailing a process of ethnogenesis.

Possibly, other Huns and nomadic groups retreated to the steppe.

Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, a Hellenistic polity which succeeded the Greek colonies, was also overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions, led by warlike tribes which would often move on to Europe, as was the case with the Huns and Turkish Avars.

Between 500 BC and 500 AD, Kazakhstan was home to the early nomadic warrior cultures: the Saka and the Huns.

Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, a Hellenistic polity which succeeded the Greek colonies, was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes, such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars.

The Goths lived with the local people until the 4th century, when a nomadic people, the Huns, arrived.

This is largely seen as beginning with nomadic horsemen from Asia ( specifically the Huns ) moving into the richer pasture land to the west and so forcing the people there to move further west and so on until eventually the Goths were forced to cross into the Roman Empire, resulting in continuous war with Rome which played a major role in the fall of the Roman Empire.

This was perhaps in response to the harassing, nomadic combat style used by the Sassanids ' northern neighbours who frequently raided their borders, such as the Huns, Hephthalites, Xiongnu, Scythians and Kushans, all of which favoured hit and run tactics and relied almost solely upon horse archers for combat.

Incursions by the Avars, a fierce nomadic tribe related to the Huns, caused Sigebert to move his capital from Rheims to Metz.

In 375 AD, the nomadic Huns began invading Europe from the eastern steppes, instigating the Great Age of Migrations.

Etymology of names such as " Getovlar " ( similar to Hettax ), Hunbulanchay ( similar to Huns ), Ingiloy ( similar to Gellah ) and others confirm habitation of the region by early nomadic Turkic tribes.

* To the north, the steppe allowed for rapid mobility, first for nomadic horseback warriors like the Huns and Mongols, and later for Russian traders, eventually supported by railroads.

It can be surmised due in part to these reforms, that the Roman Empire continued to live on for another 140 years after the end of Constantine's reign, in the face of numerous migrations and invasions from northern and eastern, nomadic peoples such as the Huns, Goths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Sarmatians, Alans, Burgundians, Saxons and Franks, which continually weakened the Empire until its eventual collapse in 476 AD.

Chinese name a Xionites ( later, Huns ), nomadic tribe of Central Asia

It was nominated as " one of the largest intact watersheds in Central Asia where 40, 000 archeological sites can be found from historically famous nomadic tribes such as the Scythians, the Turks and the Huns.