Huns and Bulgars

The primary aim of the article is to present a different approach in the critic of sources concerning the reconstruction of „late Hunnic” and „early Bulgaric” period of steppe history. In the last half century it became a main narrative in research, that the Bulgars, appearing around the 480's on the Balkan Peninsula, are identical with those Oguric tribes (Saragur, Ogur, Onogur), that – according to Priscus rhetor – arrived to the eastern part of the European steppe circa 463. Also it is assumed by certain authors, that in the years following the battle at Nedao river (455) the Hunnic tribes, overrun by the newcomers, fled behind the Moesian borders of the East-Roman empire and lost all the continuity of their political and ethnic existense. Analyzing however the sources providing information on this period – Jordanes' Getica, the works of Cassiodorus, Ennodius, Malalas, Procopius and others –, we can let ourselves to assume differently. Although in this article I do not deal with the questions related to early Hungarian history, it is clear enough, how important the above mentioned problem is in view of these questions as well.