The Kingdom of the Rugii or Rugiland was established by the Germanic peoples Rugii in present-day Austria in the 5th century.
History
Background
The Rugii were an
Germanic peoples who probably migrated from southwest
Norway to
Pomerania in the 1st century. In the beginning of the 4th century, the Rugii moved southwards and settled at the upper
Tisza in ancient
Pannonia, in what is now modern
Hungary. They were later attacked by the
Huns, and they fought alongside
Attila at the Battle of the Catalunian Plains in 451. In 453, they successfully rebelled against the Huns along with other Germanic tribes at the Battle of Nedao, after which they settled in the counties of
Waldviertel and
Weinviertel which lie north of the
Danube. Nowadays these counties are part of
Lower Austria but were never part of the Roman province of
Noricum.
Kingdom
By 467, the Rugii ruled a kingdom based in Lower Austria under their king
Flaccitheus. After his death in 475, Flaccitheus was succeeded by his son
Feletheus, who was married to the
Goths Gisa. In 476, Felethus supported the
Heruls and
mercenaries of
Odoacer, who overthrew the Roman Emperor
Romulus Augustus and made himself King of Italy. After the
Byzantine Empire Zeno attempted to create conflict between the Rugii and Odoacer, Feletheus killed his brother Ferderuchus, who supported Odoacer. Odoacer subsequently invaded the Kingdom of the Rugii, where he utterly defeated the Rugian troops and captured Feletheus and his wife, who were executed in
Ravenna in 487. Their territory was subsequently settled by the
Lombards. Two years later, the Rugii joined the
Ostrogoths king Theodoric the Great, who invaded Italy and defeated Odoacer in 493.
List of kings
See also
Primary sources
Secondary sources
-
Pauly-Wissowa. Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). Bd. 6,2. Stuttgart 1909, Sp. 2161f.
-
Friedrich Lotter: Severinus von Noricum, Legende und historische Wirklichkeit: Untersuchungen zur Phase des Übergangs von spätantiken zu mittelalterlichen Denk- und Lebensformen. Stuttgart 1976.
-
Arnold Hugh Martin Jones u.a.: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire. Bd. 1, Cambridge 1971, ,
-
Walter Pohl: Die Gepiden und die gentes an der mittleren Donau nach dem Zerfall des Attilareiches. In: Herwig Wolfram, Falko Daim (Hrsg.): Die Völker an der mittleren und unteren Donau im fünften und sechsten Jahrhundert. Wien 1980, S. 239ff.
