Grousset thought that the Kutrigurs were remnants of the Huns,
Procopius recounts: They occupied the Tanaitic-Maeotic (Don-Azov) steppe zone, the Kutrigurs in the Western part and the Utrigurs towards the East. This story was also confirmed by the words of the Utigur ruler
Sandilch:
Agathias Scholasticus, Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor
Justinian I. recalls the origin of their name as follows: In ancient times the Huns inhabited the region east of lake
Maeotis to the north of the river
Don, as did the rest of the barbarian peoples established in Asia on the near side of
Mount Imaeus. All these peoples were referred to by the general name of Scythians or Huns, whereas individual tribes had their own particular names, rooted in ancestral tradition, such as Cotrigurs, Utigurs, Ultizurs, Bourougounds and so on and so forth. The Syriac translation of
Pseudo-Zacharias Rhetor's
Ecclesiastical History ( 555) in Western Eurasia records thirteen tribes, the
wngwr (
Onogur),
wgr (Oğur),
sbr (
Sabir),
bwrgr (
Burğar, i.e.
Bulgars),
kwrtrgr (Kutriğurs),
br (probably
Abar, i.e.
Avars),
ksr (
Kasr;
Akatziri?),
srwrgwr (
Saragurs),
dyrmr (*
[I]di[r]mar? <
Ιτιμαροι), ''b'grsyq
(Bagrasik
, i.e. Barsils), kwls
(Khalyzians?), bdl
(Abdali?), and ftlyt'' (
Hephthalite). They are described in typical phrases used for nomads in the ethnographic literature of the period, as people who "live in tents, earn their living on the meat of livestock and fish, of wild animals and by their weapons (plunder)".
War with the Byzantines In the late sixth century Agathias wrote of the western steppe peoples: In 551, a 12,000-strong Kutrigur army led by many commanders, including
Chinialon, came from the "western side of the
Maeotic Lake" to assist the
Gepids who were at the war with the
Lombards. Later, with the Gepids, they plundered the Byzantine lands. Emperor
Justinian I (527–565) through diplomatic persuasion and bribery tricked the Kutrigurs and Utigurs into mutual warfare. Utigurs led by Sandilch attacked the Kutrigurs, who suffered great losses. Kutrigurs made a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire, and 2,000 Kutrigurs on horseback, with wives and children, led by
Sinnion, entered imperial service and were settled in Thrace. The friendly treatment of those Kutrigurs was viewed negatively by Sandilch. In the winter of 558, the remaining large Kutrigur army led by
Zabergan crossed the frozen Danube and divided into three sections: one raided south as far as
Thermopylae, one in the
Thracian Chersonesus, and one in the periphery of
Constantinople. In March 559 Zabergan attacked Constantinople with forces that included 7,000 horsemen. The transit of such distances in a short period of time shows that they were mounted warriors, and compared to the Chinialon's army, Zabergan's raiders were already encamped near the banks of the Danube. A threat to the stability of the Byzantine Empire according to Procopius, Agathias and Menander, the Kutrigurs and Utigurs decimated one another. Some Kutrigur remnants were swept away by the
Avars to Pannonia. By 569 the Κοτζαγηροί (
Kotzagiroi, possibly Kutrigurs), Ταρνιάχ (
Tarniach) and Ζαβενδὲρ (
Zabender) fled to the Avars from the
Türks. Avar Khagan
Bayan I in 568 ordered 10,000 so-called Kutrigur Huns to cross the
Sava river. The Utigurs remained in the Pontic steppe and fell under the rule of the Türks. Between 630 and 635,
Khan Kubrat managed to unite the
Onogur Bulgars with the tribes of the Kutrigurs and Utigurs under a single rule, creating a powerful confederation which was referred to by the
medieval authors in
Western Europe as
Old Great Bulgaria, or
Patria Onoguria. According to some scholars, it is more correctly called the Onogundur-Bulgar Empire. ==Notes==