The History of the World Podcast, written and presented by Chris Hasler

volume three the classical world

episode 57 The Huns. Oh, We'll start this week's episode by making a brief overview of what we have learned about the Huns during this podcast.

The main thing that we do know is that they arrived in Europe from the Asiatic Step. They migrated

westwards, consuming land and bringing it under their control. The people of these lands were either made

subject to the Huns or had to flee westwards to escape them. Those who fled westwards spilled into the lands of the Roman Empire and this sequence

of events undoubtedly sped up if not caused the complete collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

So this is what we do know about the Huns, but their emergence and their disappearance is quite mysterious.

Their time in history is quite brief, especially when we consider how terrifying their advance into Europe was for all of the people

of Eastern and Central Europe.

The Huns were a nomadic group of tribes from the steppe and so for these reasons

they are not completely unlike the Scythians from last week's episode.

However, the Scythians have been subdued many centuries before,

and another nomadic group called the Sarmatians

emerged in the steppe lands of modern Eastern Europe.

Both the Scythians and the Sarmatians were assimilated into the societies of the lands they occupied and their cultures and bloodlines

had become diluted to the point of there being no apparent distinction.

So when the Huns arrived, it would have felt like a very unfamiliar wave of terror.

Their lack of familiarity and their sudden appearance raises questions about

their origins. The sixth century Gothic historian called Jordanis

gives us somewhat of a mythological explanation of their origins being linked to the product of unclean spirits of Scythian lands and Gothic witches.

But modern historians look further east, even as far as the lands of Mongolia.

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