Alans

The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranic nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today the North Caucasus; some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the Alans with the Central Asian Yancai of Chinese sources and with the Aorsi of Roman sources. Having migrated westwards and becoming dominant among the Sarmatians on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, the Alans are mentioned by Roman sources in the . At that time they had settled in the region north of the Black Sea and frequently raided the Parthian Empire and the South Caucasus provinces of the Roman Empire. Between the Goths broke their hold on the Pontic Steppe, thereby assimilating a significant population of associated Alans.

After the Hunnic defeat of the Goths on the Pontic Steppe around , many of the Alans along with various Germanic tribes migrated westwards. They crossed the Rhine in 406 CE along with the Vandals and Suebi, settling in Orléans and Valence. Around 409 CE they joined the Vandals and Suebi in crossing the Pyrenees into the Iberian Peninsula, settling in Lusitania and Hispania Carthaginensis. The Iberian Alans, soundly defeated by the Visigoths in 418 CE, subsequently surrendered their autonomy to the Hasdingi Vandals. In 428CE, the Vandals and Alans crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into North Africa, where they founded a kingdom which lasted until its conquest by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 534 CE.