Heruli

Map of the Roman empire and contemporary indigenous Europe in AD 125, showing a proposed location of Heruli on the Danish islands.

The Heruli (also Eluri, Eruli, Herules, Herulians) were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity, known from records in the third to sixth centuries AD. The best recorded group of Heruli established a kingdom north of the Middle Danube, probably including the stretch where Vienna exists today. This kingdom was a neighbour to several other small and short-lived kingdoms in the late 5th century AD and early 6th century, including those of the Sciri, Rugii, Danubian Suebi, and Gepids. After the conquest of this Heruli kingdom by the Lombards in 508, splinter groups moved to Sweden, Ostrogothic Italy, and present-day Serbia, which was under Eastern Roman control.

The Danubian Heruli are believed to have originally moved from Ukraine during the late 3rd or early 4th century, where they are generally equated to the "Elouri", who lived near the Sea of Azov. In 267-270 they took part together with Goths and others in two massive raids into Roman provinces in the Balkans and Aegean Sea, attacking not only by land, but notably also by sea. The equation of these "ELuRi" with the "ERuLi" was made by several Byzantine authors, and is still widely accepted. However, some scholars such as Ellegård consider this uncertain, and have proposed that the Heruli homeland may have actually been elsewhere. For example, because a group of 6th century Heruli moved from the Danube to Scandinavia, some scholars believe that the Heruli had their earliest origins in Scandinavia. There are also proposals that there were Heruli kingdoms in several parts of Europe, already in the 3rd and 4th century, perhaps with common origins in the north. One proposal, based upon indirect evidence, is that there was a "Western Heruli" settlement based near the Lower Rhine. One reason for this is that in 286 AD, only a few years after the eastern raids, the Heruli were listed as one of the peoples who were defeated in Gaul trying to cross the Rhine.

Like the Goths, soon after first being noted in contemporary records as Eastern European raiders, Heruli also began entering the Roman empire and serving in its military, where they developed a particularly notable reputation already in the 4th century, at first mainly in the Western Roman Empire. A new Heruli unit was stationed in northern Italy. Heruli living near the Roman frontiers were among the many groups which caused disruption to the empire in this period. In 409 AD Heruli were among the "ferocious" nations that Saint Jerome described as occupying all of Roman Gaul. An important influence upon the movements of such peoples in this period was that the Huns were moving west. Eventually Attila's empire was based in the Danubian region. The Danubian Heruli kingdom known from later probably already existed in some form within this empire, as did the kingdoms of the Ostrogoths, Sciri, and Gepids.

After the death of Attila in 453, the Danubian Heruli fought in the Battle of Nedao in 454, although it is not certain which side they took among his various former allies. They also participated in successive conquests of Italy by Odoacer (476), Theoderic the Great (493), Narses (554), and probably also the Lombards (starting in 568). Under Roman command the Heruli played important military roles in Balkan, African, and Italian conflicts. With their last known kingdom in the Balkans eventually dominated by Rome however, and smaller groups integrated into larger political entities such as the Gepids and Lombards, the Heruli disappear from history around the time of the conquest of Italy by the Lombards. In this period the Middle Danube was coming under the control of the Pannonian Avars.

Classification

When first mentioned by Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, the "Elouri" were referred to as "Scythians", as were the Goths and other allied tribes. The use of this term for Heruli and Goths probably began as early as Dexippus, most of whose work is now lost. The use of this term does not give us any clear linguistic classification.

In late antiquity, the Gepids, Vandals, Rugii, Sciri, the non-Germanic Alans, and not only the Goths themselves, were all classified by Roman ethnographers as "Gothic" (or "Getic") peoples, and modern historians generally consider the Heruli to be one of these. While historians such as Walter Goffart have pointed out that the Herules are never included in the lists of "Gothic peoples" of Procopius, Mihail Zahariade has pointed out that Zonaras (12.24.20) stated that the Heruli were of Gothic stock, and he suggests this might be why Latin authors did not distinguish the early Heruli from the Goths as carefully as Greek authors did.

None of these eastern peoples were considered "Germanic" by Roman ethnographers at the time. However, in modern scholarship the Heruli, like other peoples presumed to have spoken a Germanic language, are usually classified as a Germanic people. On account of having likely spoken an East Germanic language, such as Gothic, the Heruli are often more specifically classified as an East Germanic people.

Name

In English, the plural "Heruli" can also be spelled as Heruls, Herules, or Herulians. The name can be written without "h" in Greek (Ἔρουλοι, 'Erouloi'), Latin (Eruli), and English. Whether or not the h-sound was an organic sound is uncertain.

In the earliest mentions of them in 4th century records, they were called Eluri ('Ερουλοι), with the "L" and "R" reversed compared to later records. This has led to doubts about whether these first "Erouli" from the Sea of Azov were the same people as the later Eruli from the Danube. Dexippus whose writings about these early "Eluri" only survive in fragments, gave their name a Greek etymology, claiming that that they were named after the swamps (ἕλη, hélē) of their Azov homeland.

According to modern scholars the etymology of the name is uncertain but it is thought to be Germanic. More speculatively, it is possibly related to the English word earl (see erilaz) implying that it was an honorific military title. (This etymology is associated with the speculation that the Heruli were not a normal tribal group but a brotherhood of mobile warriors, though there is no consensus for this old proposal, which is based only on the name etymology and the reputation of Heruli as soldiers.)

There have been proposals which connected this etymology with Germanic words found in runic inscriptions in Scandinavia signifying a pronunciation erilaR, and there have also been proposals that the word is connected to Germanic words for werewolves and beings with magic powers. None of these proposals can be verified.

Language

The Heruli are believed to have spoken a Germanic language. Personal names are one of the only direct sources of evidence for this. Some attested Heruli names are almost certainly Germanic, and similar to Gothic names, but a large number are not easily attributed to any specific language family.

Given their association with the Goths, the Heruli may have spoken an East Germanic language, related to the Gothic language. Alternatively however, given their proposed connections to Scandinavia, it has also been proposed that they spoke a North Germanic language.

History

Possible Scandinavian origins

Map of Scandza based upon one interpretation of Jordanes, with the Herulian homeland located in the south of Sweden or on the Danish isles.

Although contemporary records locate the Heruli first near the Sea of Azov, and later on the Middle Danube, their ultimate origins are traditionally sought in Scandinavia. The Heruli are thus commonly believed to have migrated from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea before the 3rd century AD. In line with this, their Black Sea neighbours the Goths, and their Danubian neighbours Rugii, are both believed to have had their origins on the southern Baltic shore, and there are proposals that their ultimate origins were in Scandinavia. The idea that they came from regions near the Baltic is consistent with the fact that many of these peoples, such as the Goths, spoke Germanic languages, and these originated near the Baltic.

The source of the idea that such peoples specifically came from Scandinavia is the 6th century historian Jordanes, who was based in Constantinople. He believed that the Goths and Gepids both came from Scandinavia many centuries before his time, which he described as "like a workshop or even better the womb of nations" (quasi officina gentium aut certe velut vagina nationum). This narrative was extremely influential for later writers. Jordanes also made specific remarks concerning the Heruli, but these have been more difficult to interpret. He said that the Heruli had been driven out of their own settlements in Scandinavia by the Danes (Herulos propriis sedibus expulerunt). This is interpreted by various scholars in at least two different ways.

• The expulsion happened centuries before Jordanes, and the Heruli origins are ultimately in present-day Denmark or southern Sweden.
• This expulsion from Scandinavia was not long before Jordanes, and at least some of the expelled Heruli were themselves recent immigrants to Scandinavia, from the Danube. (Historians also note that Jordanes also mentions Rugii in the same passage about Scandinavia. The Rugii on the Danube, old neighbours of the Heruli, had also been recently lost their kingdom there to the Lombards.) This possibility still leaves debate open about whether the ultimate origins of the Heruli were in Scandinavia.

The evidence for this second possibility is that Procopius, a contemporary of Jordanes, recounted a migration by sixth-century Heruli noblemen to Scandinavia ("Thule") from the Middle Danube, where their kingdom had been destroyed by the Lombards. Apparently aligning with the story of Jordanes, when other expatriates from the Danubian established themselves in the Balkans and needed a king they sent embassy to the Scandinavian Heruli and returned with one.

While a migration to Scandinavia can itself be seen as evidence of an old and continuous connection between the Heruli and Scandinavia, some scholars are sceptical of this interpretation, noting that Procopius specifically says that the Heruli who moved to Scandinavia left the "home of their ancestors". In contrast, in 2021 Prostko-Prostyński argued that there is "no doubt" about Scandinavian origins. Even though Procopius does not explicitly mention it, "it is hard to assume they ventured so far north without a reason of such nature". In his review of Prostko-Prostyński, Roland Steinacher asserts that this is debatable.

Ellegård, one of the scholars who argued that the expulsion involved immigrants whose real homeland was on the Danube, wrote that "the only thing we can say with reasonable certainty is that a small group of Eruli lived there [in Scandinavia] for some 38-40 years in the first half of the 6th century AD".

More controversially, Ellegård proposed that the evidence makes it most likely that the Heruli were "a loose group of Germanic warriors which came into being in the late 3rd century in the region north of the Danube limes that extends roughly from Passau to Vienna". This proposal has not been widely accepted.

On the Pontic-Caspian steppe

In 267/268 and 269/270 Graeco-Roman writers described two major campaigns by the "Eluri" into the Balkans and Aegean, which were among the last and biggest such seaborne raids from the northern Black Sea coast starting in the 250s. They are normally equated to the later Danubian Heruli. Although doubts have been raised about this link, the Augustan History written in the late 4th century, Jordanes in the 6th century, and George Syncellus around 800 all equated them with the Heruli known in later times.

During these raids, Goths, Eluri, and other "Scythian" peoples took control of Black Sea Greek cities, and gained a fleet that they used to launch raids starting in the Black Sea itself, and going as far as Greece and Asia Minor. Although some historians in the past doubted whether there were really two invasions so close together, these invasions began in the reign of Gallienus (260-268 AD), and continued until at least 269 during the reign of Marcus Aurelius Claudius, who subsequently took up the title "Gothicus" due to his victory.

In 267, a Heruli fleet departed from the Sea of Azov, past the Danube delta, and into the straits of the Bosphorus. They took control of Byzantion and Chrysopolis before retreating to the Black Sea. Emerging to raid Cyzicus, they subsequently entered the Aegean Sea, where they troubled Lemnos, Skyros and Imbros, before landing in the Peloponnese. There they plundered not only Sparta, the closest city to their landing site, but also Corinth, Argos, and the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. Still within 267 they reached Athens, where local militias had to defend the city. It seems to have been the Heruli specifically who sacked Athens despite the construction of a new wall, during Valerian’s reign only a generation earlier. This was the occasion for a famous defense made by Dexippus, whose writings were a source for later historians.

Further north, in 268, Gallienus defeated Heruli at the river Nestos using a new mobile cavalry, but as part of the surrender a Herulian chief named Naulobatus became the first barbarian known from written records to receive imperial insignia from the Romans, gaining the rank of a Roman consul. It is highly likely that these defeated Heruli were then made part of the Roman military.

Recent researchers such as Steinacher now have increased confidence that there was a distinct second campaign which began in 269, and ended in 270. Later Roman writers reported that thousands of ships left from the mouth of the Dnieper, manned by a large force of various different "Scythian" peoples, including Peuci, Greutungi, Austrogothi, Tervingi, Vesi, Gepids, "Celts", and Heruli. These forces divided into two parts in the Hellespont. One force attacked Thessaloniki, and against this group the Romans, led by Claudius now, had a major victory at the Battle of Naissus (Niš, Serbia) in 269. This was apparently a distinct battle from that at the Nessos. A Herulian chieftain named Andonnoballus is said to have switched to the Roman side, and this was once again a case where Heruli appear to have joined the Roman military. The second group sailed south and raided Rhodes, Crete, and Cyprus and many Goths and Heruli managed to return safely to harbor in the Crimea. Lesser attacks continued until 276.

The Heruli are believed to have formed part of the Chernyakhov culture, which, although dominated by the Goths and other Germanic peoples, also included Bastarnae, Dacians and Carpi. The Heruli are thus archaeologically indistinguishable from the Goths.

Jordanes reports that these Heruli of the Azov area in the late 4th century AD were conquered by Ermanaric, king of the Greuthungi Goths. Ermanaric's realm may also have included Finns, Slavs, Alans and Sarmatians. Before being conquered by Ermanaric, Jordanes says that the Heruli were led by a king named Alaric. Herwig Wolfram has suggested that the future Visigothic king Alaric I may have been named after this Herulian king.

The "western" Heruli of the 4th century

See also: Heruli (military unit)

The shield pattern of the Heruli seniores, a Late Roman military unit composed of Heruli.

As with their neighbours the Goths, Heruli were already seen in western Europe before the empire of Attila, both as raiders and as soldiers working under Roman authority. They first appear at the time of their first ambitious campaigns in the east. In 286 Claudius Mamertinus reported the victory of Maximian over a group of Heruli and Chaibones (known only from this one report) attacking Gaul. Further reports of the Heruli in the west continue in the 4th century and based on this there is a proposal that there was a distinct Western kingdom of Heruli living near the Lower Rhine, who were not descended from the Heruli who lived in the Black Sea.

Already before the time of Attila the Romans established a Herulian auxiliary unit in the Western Roman Empire, and it has been argued that this implies that they were already settled somewhere within the empire. The Heruli seniores were stationed in northern Italy. This numerus Erulorum was a lightly-equipped unit often associated with the Batavian Batavi seniores. If there was ever a regiment called Heruli iuniores, then it is possible it was based in the Eastern Roman empire and it may have been one of the units which ceased to exist after the Battle of Adrianople in 378.

• In about 314, the Heruli (like the Sciri and Rugii) were already listed in the Laterculus Veronensis as one of the barbarian peoples living within the Roman empire. Ellegård argues that this and other 4th century sources indicate that several of Attila's future allies in the Middle Danube were already established in the 4th century. He proposes that the Heruli were already based somewhere between Passau and Vienna. Liccardo has however criticized Ellegård's interpretation of the evidence, noting that they are placed (together with the Rugii) between the northern British Barbarians and the tribes of the Lower Rhine.
• In 360, Constantius II ordered the future emperor Julian the Apostate, who then had command of forces in Gaul, to send some of his best units including the Heruli, Batavi, and others, for fighting against the Parthians in the Middle East.The records about this imply that the Heruli were a unit who had left their homes east of the Rhine, which Ellegård thinks is consistent with a base near Passau, while Liccardo emphasizes that it implies that they now lived west of the Rhine.
• In 366 the Batavian and Heruli units fought against the Alamanni near the Rhine, under the leadership of Charietto, who died in the battle, and then against Picts and Scoti in Britain. They were subsequently sent to fight Parthians in the east.
• In 405 or 406, a large number of barbarian groups crossed the Rhine, entering Roman Gaul, and the Heruli appear in the list of peoples given by the historian Jerome. However, this list is sometimes thought to have drawn on historical lists for literary effect. Furthermore the list included many of the Middle Danubian peoples from the East, including Roman provincials from Pannonia, and was already in the period where the Huns were causing major movements of such peoples.
• In 435 the Heruli are mentioned by Sidonius Apollinaris (Letter 7, lines 23-240) among the troops which Aëtius, who had spent time in exile with the Danubian Huns, used to defend Gallia Belgica, a Roman province, from Burgundians. (At least some of his troops such as the Sarmatians apparently came from Eastern Europe.)

Ellegård argues that the association with the Batavi in this period should be seen not as a connection to the Lower Rhine, the original home of the Batavi unit centuries earlier, but to their quarters in this period which were at Passau (Castra Batava) on the Danube, not far from where the Heruli would later have their kingdom. Liccardo argues that even though "units were moved around and over time tended to lose any ethnic or geographical homogeneity" they could still give hints about the origins of ethnic groups.

At least two much later mentions of Heruli in southwestern Europe, after the Heruli were established on the Middle Danube, and in parts of Italy, can be connected to the Visigoths who had been granted a kingdom by the Romans in what is now southwestern France, but have also been taken to imply the existence of Heruli based on the North Sea coast, for example near the Lower Rhine. Firstly, two sea raids were made by Heruli around coastal Spain in the 450s, as reported by Hydatius. Secondly, shortly after 475 Sidonius Apollinaris reported the presence of Heruli at the Visigothic court of Euric in Bordeaux. They are listed in a poetic way together with other barbarians, from places as distant as Parthia, who Sidonius found looking for protection and patronage.

Latin	English
hic glaucis Herulus genis vagatur,	Here wanders the Herulian with his blue-grey cheeks,
imos Oceani colens recessus algoso prope concolor profundo.	who dwells in the uttermost retreats of Ocean and is almost of one colour with its algae-filled depths.

Particularly striking in this passage is the implication that the Heruli homeland is on the "Ocean". More generally the connection of these Heruli with the sea, so far to the west, is sometimes taken as evidence that these Heruli were not from the Danube or Black Sea. Steinacher on the other hand argues that the poetic references of Sidonius linking the Heruli to the sea, might be "nothing more than a bookish reference to 3rd-century accounts of Herules" who attacked form the Black Sea. Recent scholars such as Steinacher and Halsall have furthermore pointed out that this evidence of Heruli in Visigothic territory is consistent with the conflicts within the Roman empire during this period, and therefore do not prove that these Heruli were not from the Black Sea or Danube. Halsall, for example, writes that it "must at least be a possibility" that the Herulian raids in Spain during this period "constituted part of a Romano-Visigothic offensive against the Sueves". These Suebi, themselves from central Europe, had recently established a kingdom on the northern coast of Spain, and the Visigoths coordinated with Rome against them. On the other hand, scholars such as Liccardo emphasize that Sidonius lists the Herulians with Saxons, Franks and Burgundians as if they were subjects or supplicants from Gaul.

Finally the 6th century correspondence of Theoderic the Great preserved in Variae of Cassiodorus does not give any information about the location of the homeland of the Heruli kingdom. This leaves open the possibility that the recipient of the letter was the Middle Danubian kingdom of the Heruli. Proponents of a distinct Western Herulian kingdom near the Rhine note that the letter was also sent to the kings of the Thuringians and Warini quite far to the north of the Danube, and more directly threatened by the Franks who are discussed in the letter, while opponents emphasize that Theoderic was clearly concerned with a large part of central Europe, and that the Franks did in reality quickly make inroads towards the Middle Danubian region which threatens Italy.

Kingdom on the Middle Danube

Approximate territory under Hunnic control in 450 AD

As already mentioned, the Laterculus Veronensis shows that Heruli and Rugii were already present somewhere in western Europe in about 314. Similar listings from later in the 4th century, the Cosmographia of Julius Honorius, and probably also the Liber Generationis, both listed the Heruli near the Marcomanni and Quadi who are known from many records to have lived until the 4th century in the region north of the Danube, where the Herule kingdom would later be found.

In the late 4th century, large groups of Eastern European peoples including most notably the Goths and Alans, crossed the Lower Danube into the Roman empire, while others entered the Middle Danubian region, between the Carpathians and the Roman empire. The Huns and their allies also moved east and began established themselves near the Danube around 400. The Roman military was weakened and increased reliant upon barbarian forces. They were also internally divided with a rebel emperor in Gaul, Constantine III, and open conflict between the Western and Eastern empires in the Balkans. In 405/6, large numbers of "ferocious" peoples including the Heruli, Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Saxons, Burgundians, and Alemanni, together with provincial inhabitants of Roman Pannonia, are reported by Saint Jerome to have crossed the Rhine and occupied all parts of Roman Gaul. Several of these such as the Vandals, Alans, Saxons and Burgundians are known to have permanently settled in different parts of Roman Gaul and Iberia. Also in 405/6, the Gothic king Radagaisus invaded Italy itself from Pannonia, occupying Roman forces there.

By 450 AD, the Heruli and the other peoples still in the Middle Danube area, including Gepids, Rugi, Sciri and many Goths, Alans and Sarmatians, were firmly part of the Hunnic empire of Attila. Although they were not specifically listed by Sidonius or Jordanes, Heruli are believed to have been among the peoples who fought at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains between the Romans and Attila, possibly on both sides. As indirect evidence, centuries later Pauls Diaconus listed the subject peoples who Attila could call upon in addition to the better known Goths and Gepids: "Marcomanni, Suebi, Quadi, and alongside them the Herules, Thuringi and Rugii".

After the death of Attila in 453, his sons lost power over the various peoples of his empire after the Battle of Nedao in 454. Heruli who were possibly on the winning side with the Gepids, were subsequently among the several peoples now able to consolidate a kingdom on the Danube. It lay north of modern Vienna and Bratislava, near the Morava river, and possibly extending as far east as the Little Carpathians. They ruled over a mixed population including Suevi, Huns and Alans. Compared to other Middle Danubian kingdoms in this period, Peter Heather has described this Heruli kingdom as "middle-sized", similar to the Rugian one, but "clearly not as militarily powerful, say, as the Gothic, Lombard, or Gepid confederations which generated much longer-lived political entities, and into which elements of the Rugi and Heruli were eventually absorbed".

From this region the life story of Severinus of Noricum reports that the Heruli attacked Ioviaco near Passau in 480. The Heruli are listed by Jordanes as having fought at the Battle of Nedao, but we do not know if they took the Gepid or Ostrogothic side. However, they benefited from the subsequent downfall of Odoacer's people the Sciri, and were able established control on the Roman (south) side of the Danube, north of Lake Balaton in modern Hungary when they were apparently able to take over the kingdoms of the Suevi and Sciri, who had been under pressure from the Ostrogoths, who continued to press their old allies from the south.

Odoacer, the commander of the Imperial foederati troops who deposed the last Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus in 476 AD came to be seen as king over several of the Danubian peoples including the Heruli, and the Heruli were strongly associated with his Italian kingdom. The Heruli on the Danube also took control of the Rugian territories, as they had become competitors to Odoacer and been defeated by him in 488. However Heruli suffered badly in Italy, as loyalists of Odoacer, when he was defeated by the Ostrogoth Theoderic.

By 500 the Herulian kingdom on the Danube, apparently by now under a king named Rodulph, had made peace with Theoderic and become his allies. Paul the Deacon also mentions Heruli living in Italy under Ostrogothic rule. Peter Heather estimates that the Herulian kingdom could muster an army of 5,000-10,000 men.

Polities in southeastern Europe c.500 AD before the Lombard destruction of the Herulian kingdom

Theoderic's efforts to build a system of alliances in Western Europe were made difficult both by counter diplomacy, for example between Merovingian Franks and the Byzantine empire, and also the arrival of a new Germanic people into the Danubian region, the Lombards who were initially under Herule hegemony. The Herulian king Rodulph lost his kingdom to the Lombards at some point between 494 and 508.

Later history

After the Middle Danubian Herulian kingdom was destroyed by the Lombards in or before 508, Herulian fortunes waned. According to Procopius, in 512 a group including royalty went north and settled in Thule, which for Procopius meant Scandinavia. Procopius noted that these Heruli first traversed the lands of the Slavs, then empty lands, and then the lands of the Danes, until finally settling down nearby the Geats. Peter Heather considers this account to be "entirely plausible" although he notes that others have labelled it a "fairy story", and given that it only appears in one source it is possible to deny its validity.

Another Heruli group were assigned civil and military offices by Theoderic the Great in Pavia in north Italy.

What happened to the main part of the Danubian Heruli has been difficult to reconstruct from Procopius, but according to Steinacher they first moved downstream on the Danube to an area where the Rugii had sought refuge in 488. Here they suffered famine. They sought refuge among the Gepids, but wanting to avoid being mistreated by them crossed the Danube came under East Roman authority.

Anastasius Caesar allowed them to resettle depopulated "lands and cities" in the empire in 512. Modern scholars debate whether they were moved then to Singidunum (modern Belgrade), or first to Bassianae, and to Singidunum some decades later, by Justinian. This area had been re-acquired by the empire from the Goths, who now ruled Italy from Ravenna. Justinian integrated them into the empire as a buffer between the Romans and the more independent Lombards and Gepids to the north. Under his encouragement, the Herule king Grepes converted to Orthodox Christianity in 528 together with some nobles and twelve relatives. Procopius who felt that this made them somewhat gentler, also showed in his account of the wars against the African Vandals, that some of them were Arian Christians.

The Heruli were often mentioned during the times of Justinian, who used them in his extensive military campaigns in many countries including Italy, Syria, and North Africa. Pharas was a notable Herulian commander during this period. Several thousand Heruli served in the personal guard of Belisarius throughout the campaigns, and Narses also recruited from them. They were a participant in the Byzantine-Sasanian wars.

Grepes and most of his family had apparently died by the early 540s, possibly in the Plague of Justinian (541-542). Procopius related that in the 540s the Heruli who had been settled in the Roman Balkans killed their own king Ochus and, not wanting the one assigned by the emperor, Suartuas, they made contact with the Heruli who had gone to Thule decades earlier, seeking a new king. Their first choice fell sick and died when they had come to the country of the Dani, and a second choice was made. The new king Datius arrived with his brother Aordus and 200 young men. The Heruli who were sent against Suartuas defected with him and were supported by the empire. The supporters of Datius, two thirds of the Heruli, submitted to the Gepids. This period of rebellion against Rome lasted approximately 545–548, the period immediately before conflict between their larger neighbours the Gepids and Lombards broke out, but this rebellion was repressed by Justinian.

In 549, when the Gepids fought the Romans, and Heruli fought on both sides. In any case after one generation in the Belgrade area, the Herulian federate polity in the Balkans disappears from the surviving historical records, apparently replaced by the incoming Avars.

Peter Heather has written that:

by c.540 being a Herule had ceased to be the main determinant of individual behaviour; the Heruli had ceased to operate together on the basis of that shared heritage, and different Heruli were adopting different strategies for survival in the new political conditions which even caused them to fight on opposing sides. After c.540, we still find small groups called Heruli fighting for the East Romans in Italy, and it is noticeable that the Roman commanders were careful to appoint for them leaders of their own race. Thus some sense of identity probably remained. That said, we are clearly dealing with a few fragments of the original group, and, in the prevailing circumstances, Herule identity had no future.

Sarantis however shows that the Belgrade-region Heruli continued to be recruited, and to play a role in local conflicts involving the Gepids and Lombards, into the 550s. Suartas, a Herule general for the Romans, led Herule forces against the Gepids in 552 for example. However it appears that by this period the semi-independent Heruli near Belgrade became Roman provincials.

In 566, Sinduald, a Herule military leader under Narses, was declared a king of Heruli in Trentino in northern Italy, but he was executed by Narses. Sinduald was said to be a descendant of the Herules who had already entered Italy under Odoacer.

Paul the Deacon writes that many Heruli joined the Lombard king Alboin in their eventual conquest of Italy from the empire in the late 6th century AD.

Along with the Rugii and Sciri, the Heruli may have contributed to the formation of the Bavarii.

Culture

Political culture

While there is very little detailed information available, historical sources name six kings of the Danubian Herules, from the first half of the 6th century. Unlike their neighbours the Goths and Gepids, they appear to have had a limited role, and some of the military leaders who fought under the Romans are better known. Based mainly on the remarks of Procopius it appears they did not necessarily make all decisions, but they were expected to play a partly symbolic role in leading their people in battle, and representing them in dealings with other peoples and empires. Procopius suggests that the Herulian kings were often challenged and could be deposed if they failed to meet the expectations of their people.

Religion

The early religion of the Heruli is vividly described by Procopius in his History of the Wars. He describes them as a polytheistic society known to practice human sacrifice. The Heruli appear to have been worshippers of Odin, and might have been responsible for the spread of such worship to Northern Europe.

By the time of Justinian, Procopius reports that many Heruli were Arian Christians. In any case, Justinian appears to have pursued a policy of converting them to orthodox Chalcedonian Christianity.

Society

Procopius writes that the Heruli practiced a form of senicide, having a non-relative kill the sick and elderly and burning the remains on a wooden pyre. Procopius also states that, following the death of their husbands, Herulian women were expected to commit suicide by hanging.

Furthermore, Procopius claims that the Heruli practiced homosexuality or bestiality, depending on the interpretation:

They are still, however, faithless toward them [the Romans], and since they are given to avarice, they are eager to do violence to their neighbours, feeling no shame at such conduct. And they mate in an unholy manner, especially men with asses, and they are the basest of all men and utterly abandoned rascals.

The translated "especially men with asses" is from the original Greek text (provided next to Dewing's translation) "ἂλλας τε καί ἀνδρῶν καί ὄνων" where ὄνων is genitive plural of ὄνος, meaning donkeys.

It appears that Procopius disliked the Heruli and wanted to present them in as negative light as possible. His description of bestiality among the Heruli is almost certainly untrue.

Warfare

The Heruli were famous for the quality of their infantry, who were recruited as mercenaries by all other peoples. They were known particularly for their speed, and were perhaps used for the stabbing cavalry. Procopius described the Heruli in the Battle of Anglon against Persians, carrying no protective armor save a shield and thick jacket. This form of warfare has been compared to that of the berserkers of the Viking Age.

Herulian slaves are known to have accompanied the Herules into combat. Slaves were forbidden from donning a shield until having proven themselves brave on the battlefield. This practice might be a relic of ancient Indo-European tradition. Steinacher has pointed out that, while this remark has reasonably been seen as evidence of an "initiation rite", initiation rites are so common that caution is required:

It is of course far from clear exactly what Procopius had in mind when writing about Herul 'slaves'. But he surely provided plenty of evidence that any gens was open to newcomers. As in any other human community, both in the past and in the present, such newcomers had to prove themselves worthy before receiving full membership in that community. This must have been even truer for a community geared towards warfare.

Material culture

The tumuli of the Heruli on the Middle Danube in the early 6th century are very similar to contemporary tumuli built in southern Sweden. At this time, the Heruli appears to have had close trade relations with peoples living near the Baltic Sea.

Physical appearance

In Getica, Jordanes writes that the Heruli claimed to be the tallest people of Scandza. Jordanes further writes that all the peoples of Scandza "surpassed the Germans in size and spirit". Sidonius Apollinaris wrote that the Heruli had blue-grey eyes.

The negative excursus of Procopius

Scholars remark that the historian Procopius had a notable fascination with the Herules, which colors his descriptions of them. As Steinacher remarks, "Procopius's Herul excursus [...] is full of stereotypes and negative attitudes towards this primitive people and its archaic conventions". This means that caution is required when using his descriptions as evidence. In the words of Walter Goffart:

Though appreciative of their military qualities, he goes out of his way to blacken their character - "they are the basest of all men and utterly abandoned rascals," "no men in the world are less bound by convention or more unstable." His low opinion may result from the "special relationship" the Herules appear to have had with Justinian's eunuch general, Narses, who Procopius disliked.

Although Procopius praised the Herule named Pharas who brought about the surrender of the north African Vandal king Gelimer, he noted that despite being born a Herule, he did not drink excessively and was not unreliable.

Procopius was not mollified. The Herules were part of the panorama of an entire "West" that, owing to Justinian's neglect, had come into the possession of the barbarians by the late 540s. [...] The crowning irony, in the historian's view, was that, because some Herules served as Roman foederati, they both plundered Roman subjects and collected pay from the Roman emperor.

Places sacked by the Heruli

• Argos
• Athens
• Byzantium
• Corinth
• Chrysopolis
• Heraclea Pontica
• Lemnos
• Olympia
• Skyros
• Sparta

See also

• Järsberg Runestone

Sources

Ancient sources

• Jordanes (1908). The Origins and Deeds of the Goths. Translated by Mierow, Charles C. Princeton University Press.. Also see Latin version: https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/iordanes1.html.
• Procopius (1914). History of the Wars. Translated by Dewing, Henry Bronson. Heinemann.

Modern sources

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External links

Media related to Heruli at Wikimedia Commons

• "Heruli" . The American Cyclopædia. Vol. 8. 1879.
• "Heruli" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
• Troels Brandt: The Heruls in Scandinavia Archived 2019-02-26 at the Wayback Machine