Europe · The migration period
Alans
drawn on the map AD 414–438
The Alans were an Iranian (Sarmatian) nomadic people, not a single state — flagged accordingly. Originating on the Pontic–Caspian steppe near the Don, they were expert horse-warriors.
- Shown on the map
- AD 414–438
- Peak area
- 227k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
The Alans were an Iranian (Sarmatian) nomadic people, not a single state — flagged accordingly. Originating on the Pontic–Caspian steppe near the Don, they were expert horse-warriors. When the Huns arrived in the late 4th century, some Alans were subjugated and absorbed into Hunnic and Gothic forces, while others fled westward. A large western group joined the Vandals and Suebi in the crossing of the Rhine (406) and the invasion of Gaul.
Decline and legacy
The western Alans split under two leaders: Respendial, who allied with the Hasdingi Vandals and saved them from the Franks at the Rhine, and Goar, who went over to the Romans and settled in Gaul (later associated with the region around Orléans, where Alans were still identifiable in the 5th century, and with the magister militum Aetius's forces). Alans entered Hispania in 409 and established a holding, but were crushed by the Visigoths in 418, their king Attaces (Addax) killed; the survivors merged under Vandal leadership and later crossed to Africa. Other Alans fought on both sides at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451). Alanic contingents left traces in place-names and, some scholars argue, in the military culture and equestrian traditions of western Europe. A distinct group of Alans remained in the Caucasus, ancestral to the modern Ossetians.
Common questions
- What were the Alans?
- The Alans were an Iranian (Sarmatian) nomadic people, not a single state — flagged accordingly. Originating on the Pontic–Caspian steppe near the Don, they were expert horse-warriors.
- When are the Alans shown on the map?
- The border data draws the Alans AD 414–438. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
- How large were the Alans?
- At their greatest extent drawn on this map, the Alans covered about 227,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives them across the years they are drawn, not necessarily their greatest extent in history.
- How did the Alans end?
- The western Alans split under two leaders: Respendial, who allied with the Hasdingi Vandals and saved them from the Franks at the Rhine, and Goar, who went over to the Romans and settled in Gaul (later associated with the region around Orléans, where Alans were still identifiable in the 5th century, and with the magister militum Aetius's forces).
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory and its key figures as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, and academic and primary sources — Jordanes, Procopius, Gregory of Tours, Bede, Ammianus and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, read through the secondary literature. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Alans en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alans
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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