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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 area north of present day Vienna. 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, Italy, and present-day Serbia, which was under Eastern Roman control.
The Danubian Heruli are generally equated to the "Elouri" who lived near the Sea of Azov during the late 3rd or early 4th century, and are believed to have migrated westwards. In 267-270 these Elouri took part together with Goths and other eastern European peoples 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 although some scholars such as Ellegård consider this equation uncertain, and propose that the Heruli homeland lay 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, because in 286 AD, only a few years after the eastern raids, the Heruli were defeated in an attack on Roman Gaul.
Like their sometime allies 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. On the other hand, Heruli living near the Roman frontiers were also among the many groups which caused disruption to the empire in this period. The Heruli probably already settled north of the Danube in the 4th century. In 409 AD Heruli were among the "ferocious" nations, mostly from the Danubian area, that 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 records probably already existed in some form within his 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.
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 "Getae") peoples, and modern historians generally consider the Heruli to be one of these.See for example and . 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. and
None of these eastern peoples were considered "Germanic peoples" 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.. "Heruli, Germanic tr.". "Heruli, a Germanic people.... "Heruli. Germanic tribe with possible origins in Scandinavia... On account of having likely spoken an East Germanic language, such as Gothic language, the Heruli are often more specifically classified as an East Germanic people.. "Goths and other East Germanic tribes attracted to this region (including Heruli, Burgundians, Vandals and Gepids).". "Dieses ostgerm. Ethnos..."
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 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 runes 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.
Given their association with the Goths, the Heruli may have spoken an East Germanic language, related to the Gothic language.. "The Germani may be split into groups in a variety of ways. Tacitus speaks of Ingaevones, Herminones and Istaevones, which philologists have tried to associate with tribal and linguistic subdivisions. Other distinctions, based on the supposed geographical origins of various tribal groups, divided them into Nordgermanen (who would develop into the various Scandinavian peoples) and Oder-Weichsel-Germanen (those originating around the Oder and the Vistula, and including Goths and a number of tribes with un-or only scantily recorded languages, such as the Burgundians, Herulians, Rugians, Vandals and Gepids). The languages of these two broad groups are usually referred to as North and East Germanic, and are linked more closely with each other than with the third, West Germanic group, made up of Elbgermanen (Lombards, Bavarians and Alemanni or Alemans — again the spelling varies), Nordseegermanen (Angles, Frisians, Saxons) and Weser- Rhein-Germanen (Saxons and Franks).". "Gothic is associated with other so-called East Germanic languages spoken by tribes such as the Burgundians, the Vandals and the Gepids (classical historians group them with the Goths), the Herulians, and the Rugians.". "East Germanic languages (those of the Burgundians, Gepids, Heruli, Rugians, Sciri and Vandals)." Alternatively however, given their proposed connections to Scandinavia, it has also been proposed that they spoke a North Germanic language.
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.
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 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.
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.Also see . 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 Peucini, Greutungi, Ostrogoths, 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,. "Some of the territory covered by the Sîntana de Mureş–Černjachov culture may have been controlled not by Goths but by related Germanic peoples, such as the Heruli." 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 Baltic 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 Visigoths king Alaric I may have been named after this Herulian king.
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.
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. Letters 8.9 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.
| 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 from the Black Sea. Steinacher, along with fellow scholar Halsall, has pointed out that this evidence of Heruli in Visigothic territory is consistent with the conflicts within the Roman empire during this period; Halsall 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, other scholars, such as Liccardo, emphasize that Sidonius lists the Herulians with Saxons, Franks and Burgundians—i.e., as if they were subjects or supplicants from Gaul.
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. 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; 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 whence Italy could be threatened.See for example , , and .
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 Rugii 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.
Theoderic's efforts to build a system of alliances in Western Europe were made difficult both by counter diplomacy, for example between Merovingians 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.
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 Arianism 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 Pannonian Avars.
Peter Heather has written that:
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.
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.
Furthermore, Procopius claims that the Heruli practiced homosexuality or bestiality, depending on the interpretation:
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.
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:
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.
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