Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00906-6 - The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe Hyun Jin Kim Frontmatter More information THE HUNS, ROME AND THE BIRTH OF EUROPE The Huns have often been treated as primitive barbarians with no advanced political organization. Their place of origin was the so-called ‘backward steppe’. It has been argued that whatever political organization they achieved they owed to the ‘civilizing influence’ of the Germanic peoples they encountered as they moved west. This book argues that the steppes of Inner Asia were far from ‘backward’ and that the image of the primitive Huns is vastly misleading. They already possessed a highly sophisticated political culture while still in Inner Asia and, far from being passive recipients of advanced culture from the West, they passed on important elements of Central Eurasian culture to early medieval Europe, which they helped create. Their expansion also marked the beginning of a millennium of virtual monopoly of world power by empires originating in the steppes of Inner Asia. The rise of the Hunnic Empire was truly a geopolitical revolution. hyun jin kim is the Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at the University of Sydney. His first book, published in 2009, was a comparative analysis of Greece and China: Ethnicity and Foreigners in Ancient Greece and China. He has taught Greek history and Greek literature at Sydney University, and has also given numerous invited talks and special seminars in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Greece and Kazakhstan on topics related to Comparative Literature, Greece and the Near East, and the importance of wider Eurasia to the study of Greco-Roman civilization. He is currently undertaking a new research project funded by the Australian government titled ‘Transfer of Hegemony: Geopolitical Revolutions in World History’. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00906-6 - The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe Hyun Jin Kim Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00906-6 - The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe Hyun Jin Kim Frontmatter More information THE HUNS, ROME AND THE BIRTH OF EUROPE HYUN JIN KIM © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00906-6 - The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe Hyun Jin Kim Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107009066 © Hyun Jin Kim 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Kim, Hyun Jin, 1982– The Huns, Rome and the birth of Europe / Hyun Jin Kim. pages cm isbn 978-1-107-00906-6 (hardback) 1. Huns – Asia, Central – History. 2. Huns – Europe – History. 3. Asia, Central – Civilization. 4. Rome – Civilization – Asian influences. 5. Europe – Civilization – Asian influences. I. Title. d141.k59 2013 9360 .03–dc23 2012040702 isbn 978-1-107-00906-6 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00906-6 - The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe Hyun Jin Kim Frontmatter More information Contents page vi List of maps Acknowledgements 1 vii Introduction 1 Steppe empires and their significance in the history of wider Eurasia and Late Imperial Rome The Huns, a new world order and the birth of ‘Europe’ 2 Rome’s Inner Asian enemies before the Huns The Parthian Empire The Partho-Sassanian confederacy 3 The Huns in Central Asia Inner Asian empires before the fourth century ad Contemporary Inner Asian empires (fourth, fifth and sixth centuries ad) 4 The Huns in Europe The Hunnic Empire, the Germanic tribes and Rome The impact of the Hunnic Empire and Roman military collapse 5 The end of the Hunnic Empire in the west Civil war and the rise of Ardaric Odoacer the king of the Torcilingians, Rogians, Scirians and the Heruls Valamer the king of the Huns and founding king of the Ostrogoths Orestes the royal secretary New invasions from the east 6 The later Huns and the birth of Europe The later Hunnic Empire of the Bulgars, Oghurs and Avars The birth of a new Europe Conclusion 1 5 9 9 14 17 17 35 43 43 69 89 89 96 105 127 131 137 137 143 156 Notes Bibliography Index 159 276 333 v © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00906-6 - The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe Hyun Jin Kim Frontmatter More information Maps 1 Eurasia in the late fourth century ad 2 The Hunnic Empire in Europe at its maximum extent under Attila 3 The breakup of the Hunnic Empire in Europe page 18 44 90 vi © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00906-6 - The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe Hyun Jin Kim Frontmatter More information Acknowledgements I would like to thank first of all my old friend and DPhil thesis supervisor Doctor Timothy Rood at Oxford whose assistance and advice have been instrumental in my finishing two books over the past five years. Due to a clumsy error in editing, I was not able to thank him sufficiently when I published my first book. I would therefore like to take this occasion to express my deep gratitude. Special thanks also to Professor Peter Golden, the greatest scholar I know of Inner Asian history. I would like to thank him profusely for his patience and sound advice concerning various etymologies and questions relating to Inner Asia. I am heavily indebted to him in many ways, not least in my understanding of Steppe history in general. All possible errors and assertions made in this book are however naturally my own. I would like to thank Professor La Vaissière for his insights on the Hephtalites and other aspects of Central Asian history. I would also like to thank Professor Sam Lieu for his advice regarding etymologies and Professor Dan Potts for introducing me to critical literature that greatly facilitated my understanding of Iranian history. I would like to thank Professor Alison Betts for providing me with insights into Central Asian archaeology, Professor David Christian for comments on my final chapter, and also my friend Doctor Selim Adali for his helpful insights into Turkish etymologies. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance provided by people I met during field research in Kazakhstan, in particular my translator Galiya Biltayeva and the academic staff at Ablaikhan University, Almaty. Thanks also to all my friends and colleagues in the Sydney University Classics and Ancient History Department, in particular Dr. Julia Kindt, Professor Peter Wilson, Professor Margaret Miller, Dr. Peter Brennan and Professor Eric Csapo. vii © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-00906-6 - The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe Hyun Jin Kim Frontmatter More information viii Acknowledgements I am grateful to the University and also to the Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia for providing the funding and facilities that made this project possible. I owe a debt of gratitude also to my mentor Professor Vivienne Gray. Thanks also to Dr. Angus Bowie, Doctor Stephanie West, Professor G. E. R. Lloyd, Dr. Rosalind Thomas and Dr. Robert Chard at Oxford University. I would like to acknowledge the insights provided by Professor Nicola Di Cosmo in our email correspondence several years ago. Last but not least I thank my parents who have encouraged me to persevere and complete this book. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org