Xiongnu/Rong archers from Majiayuan Cemetery, Warring States Period 5th-3rd C. BCE
"They say that if the guilt of unfaithful Christians is so great that they sin more in disregarding the commands of the Lord which they know, than do the Heathen tribes in their ignorance, then ignorance has proved of more benefit to the Pagans than knowledge, and knowledge of the truth is only an obstacle to the Christians. For where, or among what people, do these evils exist save only among the Romans? Who commit such grave acts of injustice as ours? Take the Franks, they are ignorant of this wrong; the Huns are immune to it; there is nothing of the sort among the Vandals, nothing among the Goths. For in the Gothic country the barbarians are so far from tolerating this sort of oppression that not even Romans who live among them have to bear it. Hence all the Romans in that region have but one desire, that they may never have to return to the Roman jurisdiction. (Salvian, On the Government of God, Book 5, Chapter 1 & 8).
When Priscus of Panium visited the court of Attila he was hailed, in Greek, by a "Scythian". This man had been a slave of the Hun Onegesius, but after earning his freedom he chose to stay with the Huns and adopted their way of life. Even after the man started speaking Greek to him, Priscus didn't understand why he spoke Greek since he was wearing "Scythian dress". It's interesting that Priscus, an ethnic Greek himself, couldn't tell the difference between a Greek and a Hun simply on account of different clothing. While Jordanes references Priscus when describing the Huns as utterly alien and ugly looking, Priscus' own account shows he couldn't tell the difference between them and Europeans.
The man's reason for not returning home: "He considered his new life among the Scythians [Huns] better than his old life among the Romans, and the reasons he gave were as follows: "After war the Scythians live in inactivity, enjoying what they have got, and not at all, or very little, harassed. The Romans, on the other hand, are in the first place very liable to perish in war, as they have to rest their hopes of safety on others, and are not allowed, on account of their tyrants to use arms. And those who use them are injured by the cowardice of their generals, who cannot support the conduct of war. But the condition of the subjects in time of peace is far more grievous than the evils of war, for the exaction of the taxes is very severe".
After Priscus attempts to change his mind, the man cries but still refuses to go home; he "confessed that the laws and constitution of the Romans were fair, but deplored that the governors, not possessing the spirit of former generations, were ruining the State." (Priscus, fr. 8 in Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, Translation by J.B. Bury)
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