Rugii

The Rugii, Rogi or Rugians (Ancient Greek: Ρογοί, romanized: Rogoi), were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity who are best known for their short-lived 5th-century kingdom upon the Roman frontier on the Danube river in what is now Austria, west of Vienna. This kingdom first appeared in records after the death of Attila in 453. The next year, in 454, the Rugii, Heruli, Sciri and other peoples who had been allies within Attila's Hunnic empire were able to create short-lived, independent kingdoms in the Middle Danube region after they defeated an alliance of Attila's sons and the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Nedao. In 469 they were part of a similar alliance which lost to the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Bolia, weakening their kingdom significantly.

Many Rugii, once again along with Sciri, Heruli and other Danubians, joined Odoacer's army in Italy working for the Western Roman emperor, and participated in his overthrow of the emperor and takeover of Roman Italy in 476. Fearing plots against him, Odoacer nevertheless invaded the Danubian Rugian kingdom in 487, and the Rugian lands were then settled by the Lombards from the north. Most Rugii in the Danubian region eventually joined the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great who killed Odoacer and replaced him with a Gothic-led regime in Italy. There were Rugii based in Pavia who played an important role in the Italian kingdom until it was destroyed by eastern emperor Justinian. The third last king of the Gothic kingdom of Italy was the Rugian Eraric who died in 541. The 6th century historian of the Gothic wars, Procopius included the Rugii among the "Gothic peoples", grouping them with Goths, Gepids, Vandals, Sciri, and the non-Germanic Alans, who were mainly associated with Eastern Europe. After the defeat of the kingdom, these Rugii disappear from history.

Despite their very different location, it is generally accepted that the Danubian Rugii were descended from the Rugii who were mentioned by Tacitus in the first century, in his Germania. He mentioned a people called the Rugii living near the south shore of the Baltic Sea, near the Lemovii and Gutones. Various other records mentioning places or peoples with similar names have been associated with the Danubian Rugii as possible relatives. These similar names all appear to be related to Indo-European words for the grain rye. In the 2nd century, Ptolemy mentioned the Rutikleioi, and the place known as Rougion, on the southern Baltic coast. In the 6th century Jordanes listed "Rugi" among the tribes supposedly living in Scandinavia in his own time, near the Dani (Danes) and Suetidi (Swedes). He also listed the "Rogas" as an Eastern European people of the 4th century. Much later, the medieval Rygir were a tribe residing in Rogaland, in southwestern Norway, around the Boknafjord. The German coastal island known today as Rügen is also sometimes associated with the Rugii. The Rugii are also associated with the Ulmerugi mentioned by Jordanes. This name probably means "island Rugii", and he described them as a people who had many centuries before him lived on the Baltic coast near the Vistula, at the time when he believed the Goths arrived by boat from Scandinavia. A similar island name, Holmrygir, is known from much later medieval Norway, in the area near Rogaland.

The name of the Rugii continued to be used after the sixth century to refer to Slavic-speaking peoples near the Danube, and in north-eastern Germany, and it was even used as a Latin name for the Rus people of eastern Europe.