匈奴人(Huns)

西元370年入侵东南欧的游牧族群。第四世纪中期出现在中亚，最初入侵阿兰尼族的土地，占领伏尔加河（Volga）和顿河（Don）之间的平原，後来并驱逐居住在顿河和涅斯特河（Dniester）一带的东哥德族（Ostrogoths）。约在西元376年，他们又打败居住在今罗马尼亚附近的西哥德族（Visigoths），并到达罗马帝国境内的多瑙河流域。匈奴人是优秀的战士，当时横扫欧洲几乎未遇敌手；他们骑射十分精准，加上快速、残酷的战术，因此几乎攻无不克。他们的势力後来也扩张到中欧日尔曼人地区，并与罗马人势力结合。西元432年之前，匈奴人各族被鲁亚王（Rua，亦称鲁吉拉王Rugila）统一，434年鲁亚王死後，王位由两名侄儿继承，即布雷达（Bleda）和阿提拉（Attila）。其後他们与东罗马帝国缔结和平条约，罗马同意拨付两倍的补贴金给匈奴人；後来由於罗马未能付出约定的金额，因此阿提拉在441年对罗马多瑙河流域发动大型攻击，也使他们的势力得以控制希腊和义大利。阿提拉死後，他的子嗣争权造成帝国分裂，并开启内战战火。匈奴人後来被在潘诺尼亚（Pannonia）大战役中，遭到吉皮第人（Gepidae）、东哥德人及希路里人（Heruli）等族组成的联军击溃，东罗马帝国收回封给匈奴人的领地，匈奴人也慢慢分解，成为一般性的社会及政治单位。

English version：

Huns

Nomadic pastoralist people who invaded southeastern Europe c. AD 370. Appearing from central Asia after the mid-4th century, they first overran the Alani, who occupied the plains between the Volga and Don rivers, and then overthrew the Ostrogoths living between the Don and Dniester rivers. About 376 they defeated the Visigoths living in what is now approximately Romania and reached the Danubian frontier of the Roman empire. As warriors they inspired almost unparalleled fear throughout Europe; they were accurate mounted archers, and their rapid, ferocious charges brought them overwhelming victories. They extended their power over many of the Germanic peoples of central Europe and allied themselves with the Romans. By 432 the leadership of the various groups of Huns had been centralized under a single king, Rua (Rugila). After his death (434), he was succeeded by his two nephews, Bleda and Attila. By a peace treaty with the eastern Roman empire, the Romans agreed to double the subsidies they had been paying the Huns; when they apparently failed to pay the stipulated sums, Attila launched a heavy assault on the Roman Danubian frontier (441), and other attacks spread the Huns' control into Greece and Italy. After Attila's death (453), his many sons divided up his empire and began a series of costly struggles with their subjects. The Huns were finally routed in 455 by an alliance of Gepidae, Ostrogoths, Heruli, and others in a great battle in Pannonia. The eastern Roman government then closed the frontier to the Huns, who gradually disintegrated as a social and political unit.