Against this backdrop, the Hunnic threat emerged.

The Huns had been moving westward from Central Asia since the late fourth century, and their impact on the peoples they encountered — including the Germanic groups north of the Danube — was catastrophic and cascading.

As Hunnic pressure pushed Germanic peoples westward and southward, those peoples in turn pushed against the Roman frontier.

The Huns themselves eventually crossed into the Roman world and began raiding directly, particularly from the 420s and 430s under leaders including the figure who became most famous in this context, Attila.

Whether the specific event that ended the life of the young man in the dolium at Deultum was connected to Gothic raids, Hunnic activity, or some other armed group is not established by the current evidence.