a fierce and savage nation, who formerly inhabited that part of Sarmatia bordering on the Palus Maeotis and the Tanais, the ancient boundary between Europe and Asia. Their country, as described by Procopius, lay north of Mount Caucasus, which, extending from the Euxine to the Caspian seas, parts Aflatic Sarmatia from Colchis, Iberia, and Albania; lying on the isthmus between the two seas above mentioned. Here they resided unknown to other nations, and themselves ignorant of other countries, till the year 376. At this time, a hind pursued by the hunters, or, according to some authors, an ox flung by a gad-fly, having passed the marsh, was followed by some Hunns to the other side, where they discovered a country much more agreeable than their own. On their return, having acquainted their countrymen with what they had seen, the whole nation passed the marsh, and falling upon the Alans, who dwelt on the banks of the Tanais, almost exterminated them. They next fell upon the Ostrogoths, whom they drove out of their country, and forced to retire to the plains between the Boryithenes and the Tanais, now known by the name of Polden. Then attacking the Visigoths, they obliged them to shelter themselves in the most mountainous parts of their country; till at last the Gothic nations finding it impossible to withstand such an inundation of barbarians, obtained leave from the emperor Valens to settle in Thrace. The Hunns thus became masters of all the country between the Tanais and Danube in 376, where they continued quietly till the year 388, when great numbers of them were taken into the pay of Theodosius I. but, in the mean time, a party of them, called the Nephthalite or White Hunns, who had continued in Asia, overran all Mesopotamia, and even laid siege to Edessa, where they were repulsed with great slaughter by the Romans. The European Hunns frequently passed the Danube, committing the greatest ravages in the western empire; sometimes they fell upon the eastern provinces, where they put all to fire and sword. They were often defeated and repelled by the Romans, but the empire was now too weak to subdue or confine them from making excursions; so that they continued to make daily encroachments, and became every day more formidable than before. In 411, the Hunns, under Attila, threatened the western empire with total destruction. This monarch, having made himself master of all the northern countries from the confines of Persia to the banks of the Rhine, invaded Moesia, Thrace, and Illyricum; where he made such progress, that the emperor not thinking himself safe in Constantinople, withdrew into Asia. Attila then broke into Gaul; where he took and destroyed several cities, massacring the inhabitants with the greatest cruelty. At last he was driven out with great slaughter by Aetius the Roman general, and Theodoric king of the Goths, and could never afterwards make any great progress. About the year 452 or 453 Attila died, and his kingdom was immediately split into a number of small ones by his numerous children, who waged perpetual war with each other. The Hunns then ceased to be formidable, and became daily less able to cope with the other barbarous nations whom Attila had kept in subjection. Still, however, their dominion was considerable; and in the time of Charles the Great they were masters of Transylvania, Wallachia, Servia, Carniola, Carinthia, and the greater part of Austria, together with Bosnia, Sclavonia, and that part of Hungary which lies beyond the Danube. In the year 776, while Charles was in Saxony, two princes of the Hunns, Caganus and Jugunus, sent ambassadors to him, deferring his friendship and alliance. Charles received them with extraordinary marks of friendship, and readily complied with their request. However, they entered, not long after, into an alliance with Tassila duke of Bavaria, who had revolted from Charles, and raised great disturbances in Germany. Charles dissembled his resentment till he had entirely reduced Bavaria, when he resolved to revenge himself on the Hunns for those succours they had underhand given to his enemy. Accordingly, he ordered levies to be made throughout his dominions; and having by that means assembled a very numerous army, he divided it into two bodies, one of which he commanded himself, and the other he committed to the care of his generals. The two armies entered the kingdom of the Hunns at different places, ravaged their country far and near, burnt their villages, and took all their strong holds. This he continued for eight years, till the people were almost totally extirpated; nor did the Hunns ever afterwards recover themselves, or appear as a distinct nation.

There were two different nations that went by the name of Hunns; the Nephthalite or White Hunns, and the Sarmatian or Scythian Hunns. The former inhabited a rich country, bordering to the north on Persia, and at a great distance from the Sarmatian or Scythian Hunns, with whom they had no intercourse, nor the least resemblance either in their persons or manners. They were a powerful nation, and often served against the Romans in the Persian armies; but in the reign of the emperor Zeno, being provoked by Perozes king of Persia laying claim to part of their country, they defeated the Persians in two pitched battles, slew their king, overran all Persia, and held it in subjection for the space of two years, obliging Cabades, the son and successor of Perozes, to pay them a yearly tribute. These Hunns, called by the writers of those times the white Hunns, did not wander, like the others, from place to place; but, contented with their own country, which supplied them with all necessaries, they lived under a regular government, subject to one prince, and seldom made incursions, unless provoked, either into the Persian or Roman territories. They lived according to their own laws, and dealt uprightly with one another, as well as with the neighbouring people. Each of their great men used to choose twenty or more companions to enjoy with him his wealth, and partake of all his diversions; but, upon his decease, they were all buried with him in the same grave. This custom favours of barbarity; but in every other respect, the Nephthalite were a far more civilized nation than the Scythian Hunns, who, breaking into the empire, filled most of the provinces of Europe with blood and slaughter.

The latter were, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, a savage people, exceeding in cruelty the most barbarous nations. They begin to practice their cruelty, says Jornandes, upon their own children the very first day they come into the world, cutting and mangling the cheeks of their males, to prevent the growth of hair, which they must have looked upon, contrary to the sentiments of other nations, as unbecoming and unmanly. They had, perhaps, in this practice another view, which Jornandes seems to intimate elsewhere, viz. to strike terror into the enemy with their countenances, thus deformed and covered with scars. They had no other food but roots and raw meat, being quite unacquainted with the use of fire, and no houses at all, not even huts; but lived constantly exposed to the air in the woods, and on the mountains, where, from their infancy, they were inured to hunger, thirst, and all manner of hardships: nay, they had such an aversion to houses, which they called sepulchres of the living, that, when they went into other countries, they could hardly be prevailed upon to come within the walls of any house, not thinking themselves safe when shut up and covered. They used even to eat and sleep on horseback, scarce ever dismounting; which, in all likelihood, induced Zosimus to write, that the Hunns could not walk. They covered their nakedness with goats skins, or the skins of a sort of mice sewed together. Day and night were indifferent to them, as to buying, selling, eating, and drinking. They had no law, nor any kind of religion; but complied with their inclinations, whatever they prompted them to, without the least restraint, or distinction between good and evil. In war, they began the battle with great fury, and a hideous noise: but if they met with a vigorous opposition, their fury began to abate after the first onset; and when once put into disorder, they never rallied, but fled in the utmost confusion. They were quite unacquainted with the art of besieging towns; and authors observe, that they never attacked the enemy's camp. They were a faithless nation, and thought themselves no longer bound by the most solemn treaties, than they found their advantage in observing them. Hence we often find them, upon the least prospect of obtaining more advantageous conditions, breaking into the Roman empire, in defiance of the most solemn oaths and engagements. Several corps of Huns, after their coming into Europe, served in the Roman armies against the Goths and other barbarous nations; nay, they were ready, for hire, to fight against each other, being blind to every other regard and consideration.