Tounsoures

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 Tounsoures were a people on the lower Danube in the fifth century. Priscus lists them with the Amilzuri, the Itimari and the Boisci. The Hun king Rua meant to make war on these peoples because they had fled to the Romans and joined their alliance.^[1] Jordanes calls them the Tuncarsi. He counts them among the peoples on the shore of Scythia. The Huns overran these peoples as soon as they had crossed the Maeotic marshes.^[2] Nothing else is known about them.^[3]

The name has been reconstructed as Tungur. This might be another Turkic name, with the ending -gur that occurs in Kutrigur, Utigur and Onogur.^[4] Another scholar gives the same equation with a question mark.^[3]

References

^ Priscus; Müller 1851, fr. 1, p. 71
^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 126, p. 86
^ a b Golden 1992, p. 87
^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 438

Sources

Priscus
Jordanes (after Priscus and Ammianus Marcellinus)

Literature

Karl Müller (ed.), Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Bd. IV (darin: Menandri Protectoris fragmenta, griechisch mit lateinischer Übersetzung) (1851)
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)