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, near present-day Krems an der Donau in Austria.^[1] This kingdom, like those of the neighbouring Heruli and Sciri, first appears in records after the death of Attila in 453. The Rugii, Heruli, Sciri and others are believed to have moved into this region from distant homelands under pressure from the Huns, and become part of Attila's Hunnic empire which also moved and came to be based in this region. The Rugii were subsequently part of the alliance which defeated Attila's sons and the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Nedao in 454, giving their kingdom independence. In 469 they were part of a similar alliance who 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 in Italy and became part of his kingdom there. Fearing new plots against him, he nevertheless invaded the Rugian kingdom in 487, and the Rugian lands were then settled by the Lombards from the north. Most Rugii still in the Danubian region eventually joined the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great who killed Odoacer and replaced him with a Gothic-led regime in Italy. The Rugii were based in Pavia and played an important role in the Italian kingdom until it was destroyed by Justinian. The third last king was the Rugian Eraric who died in 541. After him the Rugians disappear from history.

It is generally accepted that the Rugii were first clearly recorded 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 east of the Gutones who apparently lived near the mouth of the Vistula. The 6th century writer Procopius included them among the "Gothic peoples", grouping them with Goths, Gepids, Vandals, Sciri, and the non-Germanic Alans, who were mainly associated with Eastern Europe.^[2]

Various other records mentioning places or peoples with similar names have been associated with the Danubian Rugii as possible relatives, mainly on the basis of similar names which all appear to be related to the grain rye. In the second century by 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 (Suedes). 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 of southwestern Norway, around the Boknafjord. The coastal island known today as Rügen is also sometimes associated with the Rugii. The Rugii are also associated with the Ulmerugi mentioned by Jordanes. Their 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 Rügen, and even as a Latin name for the Rus in Ukraine.^[3]

The tribal name Rugii is believed to originate from the name of the cereal rye, and would thus have meant "rye eaters" or "rye farmers".^[4] The Proto-Germanic word for rye has been reconstructed as *rugiz, and versions of the word exist in both West Germanic (reconstructed as *rugi), North Germanic languages (Old Norse rugr), but are not known from East Germanic. They are also known in the other language families of the Baltic region: Finnic (reconstructed in Proto-Finnic *rugis); Baltic; and Slavic (rŭžĭ). Andersson has noted that this etymology limits the possible places where we might expect the Rugii to have had their original homeland. For example the cultivation rye, which was originally cultivated in the Middle East, is not known in Norway in the Roman era, implying that the later Rygir of Norway were not living in the original Rugian homeland.^[4]

Other historical terms associated with the Rugii:

• Ulmerugi, the coastal region near the Vistula which was mentioned by Jordanes, can be translated as "island Rugii", containing the Proto-Germanic word reconstructed as *hulmaz (English holm, Old Norse holmr). An equivalent word in Old Norse holmrygir is found in Norway, near the tribe who were called the Rygir.^[4]
• Ptolemy's Rutikleioi have been interpreted as a scribal error for Rugikleioi (in Greek). The meaning of the second part of this name form is unclear, but it has for example been interpreted as a Germanic diminutive.^[4]
• Uncertain and disputed is the association of the Rugii with the name of the isle of Rügen and the tribe of the Rugini. Though some scholars have suggested that the Rugii passed their name to the isle of Rügen in modern Northeast Germany, other scholars have presented alternative hypotheses of Rügen's etymology associating the name to the mediaeval Rani (Rujani) tribe.^[4][5]
• The Rugini were only mentioned once, in a list of Germanic tribes still to be Christianised drawn up by the English monk Bede in his Historia ecclesiastica of the early 8th century.^[4][6]

Jordanes makes a references to a people called the Rugii still living in Scandinavia in the sixth century, in the area near the Dani, who are normally presumed to be the Danes.^[7][4]

According to an old proposal, the Rugii possibly migrated from southwest Norway to Pomerania in the first century AD.^[8] Rogaland or Rygjafylke is a region (fylke) in south west Norway. Rogaland translates "Land of the Rygir" (Rugii), the transition of rygir to roga being sufficiently explained with the general linguistic transitions of the Norse language.^[4]

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.^[4] None of these theories is so far backed by archaeological evidence.^[4] 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.^[4]

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".^[4] 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 of Reinhard Wenskus and the Vienna 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.^[9]

The Rugii were first mentioned by Tacitus^[10] in the late first century.^[4][5] Tacitus' description of their contemporary settlement area was at the "ocean", adjacent to the Lemovii and Gutones> The Gutones are generally considered to be early Goths, and also mentioned by Ptolemy, who placed them east of the Vistula. This is generally seen as the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, the later Pomerania.^[4][11][5] Tacitus distinguished the Rugii, Gutones and Lemovii from other Germanic tribes, saying they carried round shields and short swords, and obeyed kings.^[4][11][5]

In 150 AD, the geographer Ptolemy did not mention the Rugii in this region, but he did mention a place named Rhougion (also transliterated from Greek as Rougion, Rugion, Latinized Rugium or Rugia) and a tribe named the Routikleioi in roughly the same area, between the rivers Vidua and Vistula.^[12] Both these names have been associated with the Rugii.^[4][5]

In the sixth century, Jordanes wrote an origin story (Origo gentis) about the Goths, the Getica, which claims that the Goths and many other peoples came from Scandinavia, the "womb of nations", many centuries before his time. Upon the arrival by boat of the Goths from Scandinavia, in the coastal area of "Gothiscandza", the Goths expelled a people called the Ulmerugi.^[13][4][5]

The Oxhöft culture is associated with parts of the Rugii and Lemovii.^[5] The archaeological Gustow group of Western Pomerania is also associated with the Rugii.^[14][15] The remains of the Rugii west of the Vidivarii, together with other Gothic, Veneti, and Gepid groups, are believed to be identical with the archaeological Dębczyn culture.^[16]

According to an old proposal, in the second 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 the Marcomannic 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 the Wielbark culture has given new evidence to support this idea.^[17]

In his Getica Jordanes claimed that the fourth century Gothic king Ermanaric, who was one of the first rulers west of the Don river to confront the Huns as they entered Europe, ruled an empire stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. In a list of the peoples conquered by him the name "Rogas" appears.^[18]

One of the first clear records of the Rugii interacting with the Roman empire is in the Laterculus 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.^[19]

The Rugii are listed as one of the northern peoples who were led by Attila over the Rhine, to invade Gaul, and eventually fight the Battle 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 the Battle of Nedao in 454. Whether or not the Rugian kingdom existed before then, and in what form, is unknown.

A group of Rugii were settled near Constantinople after Nadao, in Bizye and Lüleburgaz where they provided troops to the empire.^[20]

With Roman power now also weakened along the Danube, the majority of the Rugii became part of the independent Rugian kingdom ruled by Flaccitheus in Rugiland, a region presently part of lower Austria (ancient Noricum), north of the Danube.^[21] After Flaccitheus's death, the Rugii of Rugiland were led by king Feletheus, also called Feva, and his wife Gisa.^[21] Yet other Rugii had already become foederati of Odoacer, who was to become the first king of Italy in 476.^[21] By 482 the Rugii had converted to Arianism.^[8]

Feletheus' Rugii were utterly defeated by Odoacer in 487; many came into captivity and were carried to Italy, and subsequently, Rugiland was settled by the Lombards.^[21] Records of this era are made by Procopius,^[22] Jordanes and others.^[4]

Two years later, Rugii joined the Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great when he invaded Italy in 489. Within the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy, they kept their own administrators and avoided intermarriage with the Goths.^[23][8] They disappeared after Totila's defeat in the Gothic War (535–554).^[8]

It is assumed that Burgundians, Goths and Gepids with parts of the Rugians left Pomerania during the late Roman Age, and that during the Migration Period, remnants of Rugians, Vistula Veneti, Vidivarii and other, Germanic tribes remained and formed units that were later Slavicized.^[16] The Vidivarii themselves are described by Jordanes in his Getica as a melting pot of tribes who in the mid-6th century lived at the lower Vistula.^[24][25] Though differing from the earlier Wielbark culture, some traditions were continued.^[25] One hypothesis, based on the sudden appearance of large amounts of Roman solidi and migrations of other groups after the breakdown of the Hun empire in 453, suggest a partial re-migration of earlier emigrants to their former northern homelands.^[25]

The ninth-century Old English Widsith, a compilation of earlier oral traditions, mentions the tribe of the Holmrycum without localizing it.^[4] Holmrygir are mentioned in an Old Norse Skaldic poem, Hákonarmál, and probably also in the Haraldskvæði.^[26][4]

James Campbell has argued that, regarding Bede's "Rugini", "the sense of the Latin is that these are the peoples from whom the Anglo-Saxons living in Britain were derived".^[27]: 53 The Rugini would thus be among the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons.^{[27]: 123–124} Whether the Rugini were remnants of the Rugii is speculative.^[4] Despite the identification by Bede as Germanic, some scholars have attempted to link the Rugini with the Rani.^[6][28]

According to Pohl, the name was taken up in a historicizing manner from the 10th century onwards to refer to Slavic peoples on the lower Austrian Danube (Pohl refers to Raffelstettener customs ordinance shortly after 900), on the Baltic Sea (citing Otto of Freising, Chronica 7, 9), or also the Rus (citing the Continuatio Reginonis a. 959-60).^[9]

• Eraric the Rugian
• Gustow group
• Rugiland

• Andersson, Thomas (2003), "Rugier 1. Namenkundliches", Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 25 (2 ed.), Walter de Gruyter, pp. 452ff, ISBN 3-11-017733-1
• Christensen, Arne Søby (2002). Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths. Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 9788772897103.
• Liccardo, Salvatore (2023), "The Laterculus Veronensis"", Old Names, New Peoples: Listing Ethnonyms in Late Antiquity, Brill, pp. 37–97, doi:10.1163/9789004686601_004, ISBN 9789004686601
• Machajewski, Henryk (2003), "Pommern", Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 23, Walter de Gruyter, p. 282, ISBN 3-11-017535-5
• Pohl, Walter (2003), "Rugier § 2. Historisches", in Beck, Heinrich; Geuenich, Dieter; Steuer, Heiko (eds.), Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 25 (2 ed.), ISBN 978-3-11-017733-6
• Steinacher, Roland (2017), Rom und die Barbaren. Völker im Alpen- und Donauraum (300-600), Kohlhammer Verlag, ISBN 9783170251700
• Wolfram, Herwig (2005). The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520244900.

This article contains content from the Owl Edition of Nordisk familjebok, a Swedish encyclopedia published between 1904 and 1926, now in the public domain.

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