page_title: Xionites
section_title: Kidarites
hierarchical_section_title: Xionites / History / Kidarites
caption_attribution_description: English: Kidara I portrait, 350-385 CE
context_page_description: Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae are Romanisations of the ethnonym of a nomadic people who were prominent in Transoxania and Bactria.
  The Xionites appear to be synonymous with the Huna peoples of classical/medieval India, and possibly also the Huns of European late antiquity. It is unclear whether the Xionites were connected to a people named in Ancient China as the Xunyu, Xianyun 猃狁 and Xiongnu.
  They were first described by the Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, who was in Bactria during 356-57 CE; he described the Chionitæ as living with the Kushans. Ammianus indicates that the Xionites had previously lived in Transoxiana and, after entering Bactria, became vassals of the Kushans, were influenced culturally by them and had adopted the Bactrian language. They had attacked the Sassanid Empire, but later, served as mercenaries in the Sassanian army.
  Within the Xionites, there seem to have been two main subgroups, which were known in the Iranian languages by names such as Karmir Xyon and Spet Xyon. The prefixes karmir and speta likely refer to Central Asian traditions in which particular colours symbolised the cardinal points.
context_section_description: Sometime between 194 and 214, according to the Armenian historian Moses of Khorene (5th century), Hunni (probably the Kidarites) captured the city of Balkh (Armenian name: Kush) . According to Armenian sources, Balkh became the capital of the Hunni.
  At the end of the 4th century AD, the Kidarites were pushed into Gandhara, after a new wave of invaders from the north, the Alchon, entered Bactria.
caption: Portrait of Kidarites king Kidara, circa 350-386 AD.[9]
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