Bittugures

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The Bittugures were a Hun tribe in the decades after Attila’s death. Jordanes names them among the few peoples still under the rule of Attila’s son Dengizich. The others were the Ultzinzures, Angisciri and Bardores. Dengizich besieged Bassiana in Pannonia, and the Goths drove him off.^[1] After that failure, the Bittugures and apparently other tribes left Dengizich and stayed south of the Danube.^[2] Some of them joined the Ostrogoths on their march from Moesia to Italy in 488. One of them was named Ragnaris. The Huns who followed the Ostrogoths gradually lost their identity or joined the Bulgar raiders.^[3]

The name ends in -gur, like Kutrigur, Utigur and Onogur. It is counted among the Turkic tribal names of the Huns.^[4] The historian Agathias calls a Hunnic people Bittores. This name has been compared with theirs.^[5] Some scholars think that the Bittugures were probably not Ogurs. By this reading, the Ogurs came onto the scene only about 463, and farther east.^[6]

References

^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 272–273, p. 129–130
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 166
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 164, 168, 438
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 438, 441
^ Mierow 1915, p. 182
^ Golden 1992, p. 92

Sources

Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)
Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973)
Peter B. Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (1992)