A new wave of Central Asian nomads…

A new wave of Central Asian nomads takes control of Afghanistan in about 410.

According to Chinese chronicles, they were originally a tribe living to the north of the Great Wall and were known as Hoa or Hoa-tun.

The Xionites (Chionitae) are first mentioned with Kushans (Cuseni) by Ammianus Marcellinus, who spent the winter of 356-57 CE in their Balkh territory.

They arrived with the wave of immigration from Central Asia into Iran in late antiquity.

They were influenced by the Kushan and Bactrian cultures, while patronizing the Eastern Iranian languages, and became a threat on the northeastern frontier of the Sassanid Empire.

The Central Asian Xionites consist of four hordes in four cardinal directions, named for the colors associated with these points by Chinese culture.

The Hunas are Iranian-speaking Xionite tribes.

Northern Huna are the Black Huns, Southern Huna are the Red Huns, Eastern Huna are the Celestial, or Blue Huns, and Western Huna are the White Huns, or Hephthalites.

It is difficult to determine the ethnic composition of the Xionites.

Simocatta, Menander, and Priscus provide evidence that the Xionites were somewhat different from the Hephthalites although, Frye suggested that the Hepthalites may have been a prominent tribe or clan of the Xionites.