As a student, I have always enjoyed learning of past peoples. As I get older, I realize that there seem to be many major historical events that are not covered by basic education. Recently, I have been studying the fall of Rome (outside of school), and I began to read into the various causes of the fall, including the Huns. Of course I knew they were a thing, but I never had really learned about them. They seem to have been a major factor in causing barbarians to migrate south, which makes them at least partially responsible for the fall. So then why, when learning about history, do we never seem to address the Huns? I know that they were a nomadic Asian/Eastern European people who depended on horses . So, I would like to ask the historians of reddit to help me expand my knowledge of the Hunnic people. (For example: Who really were they? What was everyday life like? Why were they considered such tactical geniuses? What was their major impact upon the world? Etc.)
The central problem with the Huns is that there are scarce records about them prior to their encounters with Rome and they left little archaeological evidence behind.
What is known is that they first appeared around 377 AD, when it is mentioned by Paulus Orosis that they "Broke out in a sudden rage against the Goths and drove them in widespread panic from their homes." These Goths were the people who the following year would defeat the Eastern Roman Army at Adrianople.
While the Huns are most famous for fighting the Romans under the leadership of Attila, there were instances where they did fight along side Romans. In particular, Huns are noted along the various barbarian people who helped emperor Theodosius deal with the usper Maximus, who are solidified his control over Gaul and was pushing into Italy.
The information I have gathered thus far comes from this book: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=CrUdgzSICxcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=huns&ots=KIVVKYw5HW&sig=TZJtdKQsRm4Vj4DO94njPoq3PA0#v=onepage&q=huns&f=false, which goes though the Huns' history and who they were as a people, I hope it helps in your inquiry.
The problem is always that we are the heirs of the greeks and the romans. We study there writings and we have there point of view, they were civilisation and the huns are just barbarians that try to destroy their civilisation.
That is how we looked at history for a long time, only recently we started to examine the 'barbarians' and looked at things from there point of view. This is usually much harder because they have left us less evidence in writing and archeology. We are usually left with studying roman, greek and other accounts with a focus on the parts about these 'barbarians'.
Now Huns are just one of many nomadic tribes that lived on the great steppe, that spreads all the way from Ukraine to Manchuria (highly advised that you look at map and study it a bit). On this large planes these tribes lived by migrating with there herds of horses and other animals. The tribes raided each to steal livestock and woman. The way of live on the steppe changed little from the domestication of the horse until the end of steppe influence in early modern times (thanks to better weapons and the Russian/Chinese empire expanding onto the steppe).
The not only raided each other, but also the settled people living close to the steppe. North china, russia, the balkan, central asia were typical places they would raid. Usually they were consider a problem but most of the time the were not a existential threats for these empires/kindoms. However sometimes these horse nomads would gather into tribal confederations that could threaten even the biggest empires. The Huns were one example of such a confederations, it included many other tribes and even non nomadic 'barbarians'.
The were so dangers because they could build powerful bows, and they could move faster then any imperial army could. The spend a lot of time on horses and were masters at riding them, together with the bow they could deploy military tactics that the settled people usually defeat or even adapt.
They made movement there greatest weapon. They could ride close, shoot bows and run away. They could split up into many small groups and attack from every side. You have to imagen them fighting more like a swarm, not in neat lines and squares. They did not have to fight you, they could always run away, they could force you to fight on there terms. These weapons in the hands of a capable general were very powerful.
There were many tribal confederations that changed world history, most of them are not well known. The Huns and the Mongols are probably the best known, but there were many more that are worth knowing. If you start reading about them you will be very surprised how often they pop up in history, how often they were a major factor in what was going on.
Sources:
I don't really have a good source on the for Huns specifically.
Who the were? Steppe nomads. Now, that might seem like a trite answer, but while there are clear and identifiable ethnic/linguistic groups in the steppes, sometimes there are also groups that are composite of various people, united by and as military organization (like the Rourans). Huns seem to be one of these, although this is obviously, given lack of sources, necessarily guesswork, in this case by Romuald Wojna rather old book.