Utigurs

The Utiguren north of the Black Sea were a living late antique equestrian people.

The Utiguren be mentioned for the first time in the 40 years of the 6th century in late antique sources, they are often referred to as " Huns ". However, this says nothing about their ethnicity, because the term " Hun " ( as before " Scythian " ) was often just a stylistic device of late antique historians, so north of the Black Sea to designate peoples of the Pontic steppe region. The Utiguren had previously lived further east, near the river Don.

After the Utiguren probably related Kutrigurs were repeatedly penetrated on Eastern Roman territory and had crossed in the years 558/59 under their leader Zabergan the Danube, it still succeeded in the year 559 the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I with Sandilch, a leader of the Utiguren, to form an alliance. The Utiguren attacked the Kutrigurs and both groups seem to have weakened in the following battles. This situation also took advantage of the first few years earlier appeared in sight Ostrom Avars, to subdue the majority of the remaining Utiguren and Kutrigurs in the year 560. To 575 but at least a part of the Utiguren lived under Turkish rule near the Crimea. Under the leadership of the Turks conquered the Utigurenfürst Angai (os) a little later the Eastern Roman city Bosporus to the Kerch Strait.