Includes bibliographical references (pages 276-332) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Introduction. 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' -- Rome's Inner Asian enemies before the Huns. The Parthian Empire ; The Partho-Sassanian confederacy -- The Huns in Central Asia. Inner Asian empires before the fourth century AD ; Contemporary Inner Asian empires (fourth, fifth and sixth centuries AD) -- The Huns in Europe. The Hunnic Empire, the Germanic tribes and Rome ; The impact of the Hunnic Empire and Roman military collapse -- 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 -- The later Huns and the birth of Europe. The later Hunnic Empire of the Bulgars, Oghurs and Avars ; The birth of a new Europe.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
The Huns have often been treated as primitive barbarians with no advanced political organisation. Their place of origin was the so-called "backward steppe." It has been argued that whatever political organisation 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.--publisher's description.