Huns

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The Huns were an Asiatic nomadic people, probably originating in what is now Kyrgizstan. They were excellent horsemen, almost living 'in the saddle', and moved their herds and flocks from one place to another on the steppes to graze the animals. They perfected the art of shooting their short, 'composite' bows from horseback, making them formidable warriors. They may have attacked China, where they were perhaps known as 'Hsiong-nu'. They then turned west and began a journey eventually to Europe. They clashed with the Ostrogoths in the late 4th century AD, who were then living where the Ukraine now lies. This pushed the Ostrogoths and Visigoths (who lived west of the Ostrogoths, around the Carpathians/in Transylvania) into Roman territory and is regarded as a significant step towards the so-called 'Dark Ages'. This incursion signals the beginning of what is now known as the "Migration Period" of the germanic tribes, or the Völkerwanderung.

The Romans considered the Huns to be the most barbaric of all barbarians, and found their appearance repulsive (this was in part Roman opinion of ‘oriental’ features, but also many Steppe nomads used to bind the heads of their children to distort the shape of the skull as they grew up, and would sometimes slash their own faces to leave deliberate scars). Even the Goths thought that the Huns were descended from ‘witches and evil spirits’ from the East.

The most famous leader of the Huns was Attila (406-453), the "Scourge of God", who having put the Balkans (to the very walls of Constantinople), France, and northern Italy, to fire and the sword, and then extracted tribute from the Romans to not ravage them any more, expired from a surfeit of alcohol and a nosebleed at his wedding, though other sources say he died during sexual intercourse.