In the 5th century, the area was populated by Karadach's Akatziroi who came under the rule of Dengizich the Hun before Byzantium gave the land to the Hunugurs in the 460s to become known as Patria Onoguria under his brother Ernakh the Hun.
Patria Onoguria, referred to as such by Agathius, Priscus Rhetor, Zacharias Rhetor, and Pseudo-Zecharias Rhetor, was a Hunno-Bulgar state around the Sea of Azov granted by Byzantium to the Onogurs in the 460s AD when, led by Attila's sons Dengizich and Ernakh, they overran Karadach's Akatziroi already settled in the region within the larger context of the Great Migrations and the Turkic expansion.