Xionites: Map & History
Xionites, Khionites, Chionites, or Chionitae were a nomadic people in the Central Asian regions of Transoxiana and Bactria.
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Xionites, Khionites, Chionites, or Chionitae were a nomadic people in the Central Asian regions of Transoxiana and Bactria.
Modern Countries Once Part of Xionites
At its mapped extent, Xionites covered territory in 4 present-day countries. The period shown is when the mapped borders include that country, and the note says how much of it.
- Kyrgyzstan387–401 CE · most
- Uzbekistan387–401 CE · most
- Tajikistan387–401 CE · a large part
- Kazakhstan387–401 CE · a small part
States and Provinces
Largest Present-Day Cities in Its Territory
Each opens on the live map inside Xionites's borders of that time.
Derived by testing mapped cities against this polity's dated territorial polygons, so the list is indicative and follows the borders in the source dataset.
Xionites in Depth
History
The defeat of the Xiongnu in 89 CE by Han dynasty forces at the Battle of Ikh Bayan and subsequent Han campaigns against them, led by Ban Chao may have been a factor in the ethnogenesis of the Xionites and their migration into Central Asia.
Xionite tribes reportedly organised themselves into four main hordes: "Black" or northern (beyond the Jaxartes), "Blue" or eastern (in Tianshan), "White" or western (possibly the Hephthalites), around Khiva, and the "Red" or southern (Kidarites and/or Alchon), south of the Oxus. Artefacts found from the area they inhabited dating from their period indicate their totem animal seems to have been the (rein)deer.
The Xionites are best documented in southern Central Asia from the late 4th century AD until the mid-5th century AD.
Origins and culture
The original culture of the Xionites and their geographical urheimat are uncertain. They appear to have originally followed animist religious beliefs, which mixed later with varieties of Buddhism and Shaivism. It is difficult to determine their ethnic composition.
Differences between the Xionites, the Huns who invaded Europe in the 4th century, and the Turks were emphasised by Carlile Aylmer Macartney (1944), who suggested that the name "Chyon", originally that of an unrelated people, was "transferred later to the Huns owing to the similarity of sound". The Chyon who appeared in the 4th century, in the steppes on the northeastern frontier of Persia were probably a branch of the Huns that appeared shortly afterwards in Europe.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Xionites (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Xionites Map Over Time
Dated world maps on which Xionites appears, with the other states of the time.
Xionites Timeline
Key historical inflections from foundation to peak territorial expansion
Expansion to peak recorded area of 488,436 km² in 399 CE.
Xionites: Frequently Asked Questions
When did Xionites exist?
Xionites is dated to 387 CE – 401 CE, in the Classical Antiquity era.
How large was Xionites at its peak?
At its peak in 399 AD Xionites covered about 488,436 km².