EMPIRES OF THE STEPPES
by Kenneth W Harl (Bloomsbury, $40)
“Attila the Hun died in 452CE from overindulgence at a marriage feast with Rome in his sights.
Empires come about through conquest and colonisation. Historians who take a longer view see this as a part of how civilisations rise and fall.
Last year we saw international history professor Marc David Baer’sNow it’s the turn of the nomadic tribes of central Asia to have their contribution recognised. These two accounts intersect, as the conquerors of the steppes often butted up against the easternmost borders of the Roman and Ottoman empires.
