TheRugii,Rogi orRugians (Ancient Greek:Ρογοί,romanized: Rogoi), were one of the smallerGermanic peoples ofLate Antiquity who are best known for their short-lived 5th-century kingdom upon the Roman frontier on theDanube river in what is nowAustria, west ofVienna. This kingdom first appeared in records after the death ofAttila 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 theOstrogoths at theBattle of Nedao. In 469 they were part of a similar alliance which lost to the Ostrogoths at theBattle of Bolia, weakening their kingdom significantly.
Many Rugii, once again along with Sciri, Heruli and other Danubians, joinedOdoacer'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 theLombards from the north. Most Rugii in the Danubian region eventually joined the OstrogothTheoderic the Great who killed Odoacer and replaced him with a Gothic-led regime in Italy. There were Rugii based inPavia who played an important role in the Italian kingdom until it was destroyed by eastern emperorJustinian. The third last king of the Gothic kingdom of Italy was the RugianEraric 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-GermanicAlans, who were mainly associated with Eastern Europe.[1] After the defeat of 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 byTacitus in the first century, in hisGermania. He mentioned a people called theRugii living near the south shore of theBaltic Sea, near theLemovii andGutones. 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 toIndo-European words for the grainrye. In the 2nd century,Ptolemy mentioned theRutikleioi, and the place known as Rougion, on the southern Baltic coast. In the 6th centuryJordanes listed "Rugi" among the tribes supposedly living in Scandinavia in his own time, near the Dani (Danes) andSuetidi (Swedes). He also listed the "Rogas" as an Eastern European people of the 4th century. Much later, the medievalRygir were a tribe residing inRogaland, in southwestern Norway, around theBoknafjord. The German coastal island known today asRügen is also sometimes associated with the Rugii. The Rugii are also associated with theUlmerugi 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 theGoths 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 theRus people of eastern Europe.
The tribal nameRugii is believed to originate from the name of the cerealrye and would therefore have meant "rye eaters" or "rye farmers".[2] TheProto-Germanic word for rye has been reconstructed as*rugiz, and versions of the word exist in bothWest Germanic (reconstructed as*rugi), andNorth Germanic languages (Old Norserugr), but are not known fromEast Germanic. They are also known in the other language families of theBaltic region:Finnic (reconstructed in Proto-Finnic*rugis);Baltic; andSlavic (rŭžĭ). Andersson notes that etymology limits the possible places that we might expect the Rugii to have had their original homeland. For example, the cultivation of rye, which began in the Middle East, is not known in Norway in the Roman era, which implies that the later Rygir of Norway were not living in the original Rugian homeland.[2]
Other historical terms associated with the Rugii:
The earliest surviving mention of the Rugii is byTacitus writing about 100 AD. He described them as living on the southernBaltic coast ("ocean") near theLemovii, probably west of theVistula estuary. Together with their inland neighbours theGutones as a group of Germanic peoples (germanorum gentes) who were distinguishable from other Germanic peoples because they used round shields and short swords, and obeyed kings.[5]
The 2nd century geographerPtolemy did not mention the Rugii, but he did mention a place namedRugion and a tribe named theRoutikleioi in roughly the same area, between the rivers Vidua and Vistula.[6] Modern scholars have suggested links between both these geographical entries and the Rugii.[2]
In the 6th century, Jordanes wrote an origin story (Origo gentis) about the Goths, theGetica. According to this account, when the Goths arrived from Scandinavia in the coastal area of "Gothiscandza" they expelled a people called theUlmerugi.[7][2]
TheOxhöft culture is associated with parts of the Rugii andLemovii. The archaeologicalGustow group ofWestern Pomerania is also associated with the Rugii.[8][9] The remains of the Rugii west of the Vidivarii, together with other Gothic,Veneti, andGepid groups, are believed to be identical with the archaeologicalDębczyn culture.[10]
According to an old proposal, in the 2nd century AD, eastern Germanic peoples then mainly in the area of modern Poland, began to expand their influence, pressing peoples to their south and eventually causing theMarcomannic Wars on the Roman Danubian frontier. Given the coincidence of the same name on the Baltic and Danube, the Rugii are one of the peoples thought to have been involved. While modern authors are sceptical of some elements of the old narrative, the archaeology of theWielbark culture has given new evidence to support this idea.[11]
In hisGetica Jordanes claimed that the 4th-century Gothic kingErmanaric, who was one of the first rulers west of theDon river to confront theHuns as they entered Europe, ruled an empire stretching from theBaltic Sea to theBlack Sea. In a list of the peoples conquered by him the name "Rogas" appears.[12]
The 6th-century writer Jordanes made reference to a people called the Rugii living in Scandinavia in his time, in the area near the Dani, who are normally presumed to be the Danes.[13][2]
According to an old proposal, the Rugii possibly migrated from southwest Norway toPomerania in the 1st century AD.[14]Rogaland or Rygjafylke is a region (fylke) in south west Norway. Rogaland translates "Land of the Rygir" (Rugii), the transition ofrygir toroga being sufficiently explained with the general linguistic transitions of theNorse language.[2]
Scholars suggest a migration either of Rogaland Rugii to the southern Baltic coast, a migration the other way around, or an original homeland on the islands of Denmark in between these two regions.[2] None of those theories is so far backed by archaeological evidence.[2] Another theory suggests that the name of one of the two groups was adapted by the other one later without any significant migration taking place.[2]
Scholars such as Andersson regard it as very unlikely that the name meaning "rye-eaters" or "rye-farmers" was invented twice. In favour of a Scandinavian origin, despite doubts about the early cultivation of Rye, he cites the sixth century claim of Jordanes that Scandinavia was the "womb of nations".[2] Others such as Pohl have argued that the similarity of names has been uncritically interpreted to indicate tribal kinship or identity, feeding a debate about the location of an "original homeland" without any reference to historical sources. Pohl also suggests that one possibility suggested by the work ofReinhard Wenskus and theVienna School of History is that the name of the Rugii could have been spread by small elite groups who moved around, rather than mass migration.[15]
One of the first clear records of the Rugii interacting with the Roman empire is in theLaterculus Veronensis of about 314. In a list of barbarians under the emperors it lists them together with their future neighbours the Heruli, but in a part of the list between the Scottish barbarians and the tribes north of the lower Rhine. Unlike the Heruli, they do not appear in other such 4th-century lists.[16]
The Rugii were listed bySidonius Apollinaris as one of the northern peoples who were led by Attila over the Rhine, to invade Gaul, and eventually fight theBattle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451. After Attila's death in 453, the Rugii were among the Hunnic confederates who successfully rebelled against his sons, defeating them and the Ostrogoths at theBattle of Nedao in 454. Whether or not the Rugian kingdom existed before then, and in what form, is unknown.
Another group of Rugii were settled near Constantinople after Nadao, inBizye andArcadiopolis where they provided troops to the empire.[17]
In 468/9 the Danubian kingdom of the Rugii and theGepids sent forces to theBattle of Bolia to support their neighbours in the Suavian kingdom, and the remnants of theSciri. These Danubian kingdoms fought against their powerful southern neighbours theOstrogoths and lost.[18] Leading the Sciri in this disastrous battle were the father and brother ofOdoacer,Edeko andOnoulphus.
By 470, Odoacer was the military leader for the Romans, of a mixed group of Danubian peoples including Heruli, Sciri and Rugii. In one passage Jordanes even referred to Odoacer as a king of the Rugii. In 476 these Rugii werefoederati ofOdoacer, who was became the firstking of Italy in 476.[19]
With Roman power still weakened along the Danube, the majority of the Rugii remained part of the independent Rugian kingdom on the Danube, ruled byFlaccitheus inRugiland, a region presently part of lower Austria (ancientNoricum), north of the Danube.[19] After Flaccitheus's death, the Rugii of Rugiland were led by kingFeletheus, also called Feva, and his wife Gisa.[19]
By 482 the Rugii had converted toArianism.[14]
Feletheus' Rugii were utterly defeated by Odoacer in 487. King Feletheus and his wife Gisa were brought to Italy. Many of those who did not join Odoacer in Italy joined the Ostrogoths.[20] Rugiland was subsequently settled by theLombards.[19] Records of this era are made byProcopius,Jordanes and others.[2][21]
Two years later, Rugii joined theOstrogothic kingTheodoric the Great when he invaded Italy in 489. Within theOstrogothic Kingdom in Italy, they kept their own administrators and avoided intermarriage with the Goths.[22][14] They disappeared afterTotila's defeat in theGothic War (535–554).[14]
The ninth-centuryOld EnglishWidsith, a compilation of earlier oral traditions, mentions the tribe of theHolmrycum without localizing it.[2]Holmrygir are mentioned in anOld Norseskaldic poem,Hákonarmál and probably also in theHaraldskvæði.[23][2]
James Campbell has argued that, regarding Bede's "Rugini", "the sense of the Latin is that these are the peoples from whom theAnglo-Saxons living in Britain were derived".[24]: 53 The Rugini would thus be among the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons.[24]: 123–124 Whether the Rugini were remnants of the Rugii is speculative.[2] Despite the identification by Bede as Germanic, some scholars have attempted to link the Rugini with theRani.[4][25]
The name of the Rugii continued to be used from the 10th century onwards in the same region on the lower Austrian Danube, but this was apparently used to refer to Slavic-speaking people.[26] TheRaffelstetten customs regulations mentions traders who were Slavs from Bavaria (Bawari vel Sclavi istius patrie) who were clearly distinguished from Slavs coming from Bohemia and from the land of the Rugi (Sclavi vero, qui de Rugis vel de Boemannis mercandi). This land of the Rugi could have been a reference to the land where the Rugii once lived, or to Russia.[27]
Doubt about this is possible because the word Rugi was one of the many variant spellings sometimes used to refer to theRus' people, who, as traders of slaves did have connections to this market.[28]Adalbert of Trier, in hisContinuatio Reginonis, referred to a queen of the Rus, as "regina Rugorum" under the year 959. Soon after, under 960, 961, 962 and 966 he used the term again to refer the Rus people and a bishop ordained for them.[29]
There also seem to have been Slavic "Rugi" nearPomerania, perhaps at Rügen.Widukind of Corvey listed theRu[gi]ani among theSclavi peoples who lived between theElbe andOder rivers.[30] Later,Otto of Freising, who also described Odoacer as a Rugian, also used the term when mentioning that in 1135, Holy Roman EmperorLothair III demanded that the "duke of the Poles" should pay homage to him for the Pomeranians and Rugians (Pomeranis et Rugis).[31]
This article contains content from theOwl Edition ofNordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in thepublic domain.
