What attracts you to Late Rome?

[Alanus]

That's very interesting, and although I think the xiongnu had a part to play in the formation of the Huns, I still don't think the huns were directly related to them.

What's interesting though is the co-relation between Chinese, Roman, and Sassanid records about the area around the Aral sea and the migrations taking place in central asia.

Yes, there are discrepencies in the art and traditions of the Xiong-nu and the Huns, but there are many likenesses as well-- archery-based fighting style, same basic customs, high Asiantic incidence of physicality, and "high king" structure in their cultures. Same goes for the Saka-Massagetae shift to Wusun-Alani. We are looking at almost 4 centuries of slow change from China to the Aral steppe.

But as you note, the chronological histories of the Chinese, Persians, and Romans, follow these tribes precisely as they restructure themselves into the "terrible hoards" that reach the Danube.