Rome was doomed to fall as soon as it spread outside of Italy because the further the territory is from the capital, the harder it is to govern. Thus imperialism itself sowed the seeds of destruction in Rome. The decline of the Roman legions started long before Rome started getting sacked.

Roman Republic, (509–27 bce), the ancient state centred on the city of Rome that began in 509 bce, when the Romans replaced their monarchy with elected magistrates, and lasted until 27 bce, when the Roman Empire was established.

Roman Monarchy

The Etruscans

The predecessor state of the Roman Empire, the Roman Republic (which had replaced Rome’s monarchy in the 6th century BC) became severely destabilized in a series of civil wars and political conflicts. In the mid-1st century BC, Julius Caesar was appointed as perpetual dictator and then assassinated in 44 BC.

From 127 BC to 119 BC during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the famous generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing launched three large-scale attacks against the Huns, also known as Xiongnu who disturbed the northern border of the Han Dynasty frequently, and finally expelled them far northwest of the Great Wall.

Genghis Khan was of pure Mongol ancestry and could have been a very distant descendant of the same race that produced Attila. The Mongols were a nomadic herding people from the Central Asian steppes. Both Attila and Genghis Khan ruled entirely out of fear.

Hun Origin No one knows exactly where the Huns came from. Some scholars believe they originated from the nomad Xiongnu people who entered the historical record in 318 B.C. and terrorized China during the Qin Dynasty and during the later Han Dynasty.

Due to the devastating defeat by the Chinese Han dynasty, the northern branch of the Xiongnu had retreated north-westward; their descendants may have migrated through Eurasia and consequently they may have some degree of cultural and genetic continuity with the Huns.

Hunnic language

Attila the Hun

The Huns were early nomads, though definitely not the first. The Mongols were a small nomadic tribe who conquered the rest and also many civilised peoples under Genghis Khan and his heirs. Their life-style wasn’t hugely different from what the Huns had had much earlier.

Attila was king of the Huns, a non-Christian people based on the Great Hungarian Plain in the fifth century A.D. At its height, the Hunnic Empire stretched across Central Europe. The Romans considered the Huns to be barbarians, and under Attila’s rule the Huns pillaged and destroyed many Roman cities.

Disney used Huns, because they and the Mongols are the only nomads known to most Westerners. Mulan the movie is nothing but fantasy, but at the time Mulan supposedly lived, the Chinese were at war with the Mongolians.

George R.R. Martin has stated that the Dothraki are inspired by a loose mix of the Mongols, Huns, Alans, Turks, Native American plains tribes, and various other nomadic horse-riding peoples who lived on the open steppe. In appearance, the Dothraki are a large people, with copper-toned skin, dark eyes, and dark hair.