Huns Begin Migration West from Central Asia.

The Huns were one of several nomadic tribes that by the fourth century c.e. had come to populate the plains of southwestern Russia and southeastern Europe. They most likely originated in the steppe region of central Asia in what is now Mongolia and northwestern China. Chinese records of the second century b.c.e. refer to the Xiongnu (Hsiung-nu), or Huns, who had posed a serious threat to the security of China. In response, the Chinese, through war and the building of the Great Wall, repelled the Xiongnu, forcing them west beyond the Asian steppe. An illiterate people, the Huns left no written legacy. Consequently, the scant record of these nomadic people’s westward migration before the late fourth century c.e. is attributed to Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330-c. 395 c.e.). Although Ammianus’s record is sketchy, modern archaeological evidence suggests that the Hunic migration west began sometime between the third and fourth centuries c.e. By about 374 c.e., the Huns had advanced as far as the Don River in southern Russia. There, they formed an alliance with the Alani, another nomadic people. The newly formed alliance pushed west, by 376 c.e. reaching the banks of the Danube River, the northeastern frontier of the Roman Empire. For the hundred years to follow, the Huns would influence the political dynamics of the region, eventually becoming a significant factor in the fall of Rome.