Huns nomadic and pastoral people of unknown ethnological affinities who appeared in Europe in the 4th cent. AD, and built up an empire there. They were organized in a predominantly military manner. Divided into hordes, they undertook extensive independent campaigns, living off the countries they ravaged. The Huns have been described as short and of somewhat Mongolian appearance. Their military superiority was due to their small, rapid horses, on which they practically lived, even eating and negotiating treaties on horseback. Despite the similarity of their tactics and habits with those of the White Huns, the Magyars, the Mongols , and the Turks, their connection with those peoples is either tenuous or—in the case of the Magyars and the Turks—unfounded.

The Huns first appeared in Europe c.AD 372, when they invaded the lower Volga valley. Some scholars have associated them with Hsiung-nu (as the Chinese called them). In the 3d cent. BC part of the Great Wall of China was erected to exclude the Hsiung-nu from China; the Hsiung-nu occupied N China from the 3d cent. AD until 581. As the Huns advanced westward from the Volga valley, they pushed the Germanic Ostrogoths and Visigoths before them and thus precipitated the great waves of migrations that destroyed the Roman Empire and changed the face of Europe. They crossed the Danube, penetrated deep into the Eastern Empire, and forced (432) Emperor Theodosius to pay them tribute. Attila , their greatest king, had his palace in Hungary. Most of the territories that now constitute European Russia, Poland, and Germany were tributary to him, and he was long in Roman pay as Roman general in chief. When Rome refused (450) further tribute, the Huns invaded Italy and Gaul and were defeated (451) by Aetius , but they ravaged Italy before withdrawing after Attila's death (453). Their later movements are little known; some believe that the White Huns were remnants of the Hunnic people. The word Huns has been used as an epithet, as for German soldiers, connoting destructive militarism.

Bibliography: See T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, Vol. I (rev. ed. 1892, repr. 1967); W. M. McGovern, Early Empires of Central Asia (1939); E. A. Thompson, A History of Attila and the Huns (1948); F. Teggart, China and Rome (1969, repr. 1983); J. D. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns (1973).

Huns

The people who invaded the eastern Roman Empire around 372-453 C.E. and were particularly ruthless and effective in their war campaigns under the leadership of Attila. Modern day Hungarians claim ancestry dating back to the Huns.

Ancient historians recorded legends that grew out of the severe stress the Huns created in all those whom they fought against. They credited the Huns with a supernatural origin. The Huns were referred to as "children of the devil," because it was said that they were born of a union between demons and hideous witches, the latter cast out of their own country by Philimer, king of the Goths, and his army. The old writers state that the Huns were of horrible deformity and could not be mistaken for anything but the children of demons. The German historian C. Besoldus (1577-1638) claimed that their name came from a Celtic or barbaric word signifying "great magicians." Many stories are told of their magic prowess and of their raising specters to assist them in battle.

Sources:

Manchen-Helfen, Otto. The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.

Huns Pastoral nomads famed for their horsemanship, who in about 370 AD invaded south-eastern Europe and conquered the OSTROGOTHS. In 376 they drove the VISIGOTHS into Roman territory and early in the 4th century themselves advanced west, driving the VANDALS and others west into Gaul, Italy, and finally Spain. Under ATTILA (434–53) they ravaged the Balkans and Greece, but a defeat was finally inflicted on them in 451 at the CATALAUNIAN FIELDS by the Romans and Visigoths under the command of Aetius. However that did not prevent them penetrating and plundering Italy the following year. Two years after the death of Attila they were decisively defeated near the unidentified River Nedao, and thereafter ceased to be of historical significance. The White Huns occupied Bactria and territory west towards the Caspian Sea. They vigorously attacked the power of the SASSANIANS, defeating and killing Peroz in 484, but then moved south to establish an empire in northern India at the expense of the GUPTAS.

Hun, The slang, derogatory the individual German combatant and the German armed forces collectively, particularly during World War I.
derived from the name of an historical tribe which invaded Europe in the early Middle Ages and the supposed barbaric behavior of the German troops which invaded Belgium and France in 1914.

Huns Nomadic people of Mongol or Turkic origin who expanded from central Asia into e Europe. Under Attila, they overran large parts of the Roman empire in 434–53, exacting tribute, but after his death they disintegrated.