OF THE EOMAN EMPIEE 87 utterly destroyed before the end of the first century of the Christian aera.^^ The fate of the vanquished Huns was diversified by the Their emigra- various influence of character and situation.^ Above one mjLc. hundred thousand persons, the poorest, indeed, and the most pusillanimous of the people, were contented to remain in their native country, to renounce their peculiar name and origin, and to mingle with the victorious nation of the Sienpi. Fifty- eight hords, about two hundred thousand men, ambitious of a more honourable servitude, retired towards the South ; implored the protection of the emperors of China ; and were permitted to inhabit, and to guard, the extreme frontiers of the province of Chansi and the territory of Ortous. But the most warlike and powerful tribes of the Huns maintained, in their adverse fortune, the undaunted spirit of their ancestors. The western world was open to their valour ; and they resolved, under the conduct of their hereditary chieftains, to discover and sub- due some remote country, which was still inaccessible to the arms of the Sienpi and to the laws of China. ^ The course of their emigration soon carried them beyond the mountains of Imaus, and the limits of the Chinese geography ; but ive are able to distinguish the two great divisions of these formidable exiles, which directed their march towards the Oxus, and towards the The wwte Volga. The first of these colonies established their dominion in diana the fruitful and extensive plains of Sogdiana, on the eastern side of the Caspian : where they preserved the name of Huns, with the epithet of Euthalites or Nepthalites.'**^ Their man- ners were softened, and even their features were insensibly improved, by the mildness of the climate and their long resi- dence in a flourishing province ^"^ which might still retain a faint ^3 The asra of the Huns is placed, by the Chinese, 1210 years before Christ. But the series of their kings does not commence till the year 230 (Hist, des Huns, torn. ii. p. 21, 123). [The southern Zenghis continued till nearly the end of the second cent. A.D. ; Parker, p. 102.] ^ The various accidents, the downfall, and flight of the Huns are related in the Khan-Mou, torn. iii. p. 88, 91, 95, 139, &c. The small numbers of each hord may be ascribed to their losses and divisions. ^M. de Guignes has skilfully traced the footsteps of the Huns through the vast deserts of Tartary (torn. ii. p. 123, 277, &c. , 325, &c.). '^ [The Ephthalites were not part of the Hiung-nu, but seem to have been the Yiieh-chih, who possessed part of "the long straggling province now known as Kan Suh " ; were conquered by Meghder, were driven westward by his successor before 162 B.C., and divided Bactria with the Parthians. See Parker, p. 29, 30.] ^Mohammed, Sultan of Carizme, reigned in Sogdiana, when it was invaded (A.D. 1218) by Zingis and his Moguls. The Oriental Historians (see d'Herbelot, Petit de la Croix, &c.) celebrate the populous cities which he ruined, and the
