The Rugi, Rogi or Rugians, called the Rugii in the first century, 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 on the Danube river in what is now Lower Austria, west of Vienna. This kingdom first appeared in records after the death of Attila in 453. There is evidence that these Rugi had moved from the southern Baltic Sea coast in the third or fourth century, and there may even have been a continuing presence of Rugian groups in that area, and also Scandinavia, into early medieval times. However, the best-known Danubian Rugi eventually lost their kingdom, and were forced to regroup. They continued to be identifiable within the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy until it was destroyed by the eastern Roman emperor Justinian in 554.
The Rugi are one of the so-called "disappearing and reappearing tribes" listed by historian Peter Heather, appearing in early Roman records in one place, only to reappear centuries later in records concerning another place. Despite their very different location, it is generally accepted that the Danubian Rugi were descended from the "Rugii" who were mentioned by Tacitus in the first century, in his Germania. He described these "Rugii" living near the south Baltic shore, as neighbours of the Lemovii and Gutones. Various other records mentioning places or peoples with similar names have been associated with the Baltic Rugi as possible relatives. These similar names all appear to be related to Indo-European words for the grain rye. In the 2nd century, Ptolemy mentioned the Rutikleioi, and a place known as Rougion, near the southern Baltic coast. In the 6th century Jordanes listed the "Rogas" as an Eastern European people of the 4th century who were one of the tribes ruled by the gothic King Ermanaric, whose empire supposedly stretched from the Black Sea to regions near the Baltic Sea. The Rugi are also associated with the Ulmerugi mentioned by Jordanes. This name probably means "island Rugi", 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 southwestern Norway, around the Boknafjord, where Rogaland was also named after a people called the Rygir. Jordanes also listed "Rugi" among the tribes supposedly living in Scandinavia in the 5th century, near the Dani (Danes) and Suetidi (Swedes).
In 454, after the death of Attila, the Rugi, 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 the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Nedao. In 469 they were part of a similar alliance which lost to the Ostrogoths at the Battle of Bolia, weakening their kingdom significantly. Many Rugi, once again along with Sciri, Heruli and other Danubians, joined the Roman military in Italy, and subsequently participated in Odoacer's overthrow of the emperor and takeover of Roman Italy in 476. Odoacer nevertheless invaded the Danubian Rugian kingdom in 487 and 488, and the Rugian lands were then settled by the Lombards from the north. Rugi from the Danubian region who did not join Odoacer eventually joined the Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great, who invaded Italy and killed Odoacer. The Rugi based in Italy played an important role in the Ostrogothic Italian kingdom. One of the last kings of the Gothic kingdom of Italy was the Rugian Eraric who was killed in 541. After the defeat of the kingdom in 554, these Rugi disappear from history.
The name of the Rugi continued to be used after the sixth century to refer to Slavic-speaking peoples near the Danube where their kingdom had been. Similar names were also used to refer to the slavic Rujani what is now north-eastern Germany, near the German coastal island known today as Rügen. The name was also occasionally used as a Latin name for the Rus people of eastern Europe.
Etymology The tribal name is commonly proposed to be derived from the name of the cereal rye and would therefore have meant "rye eaters" or "rye farmers". The Proto-Germanic word for rye has been reconstructed as *rugiz, and versions of the word exist in both West Germanic (reconstructed as *rugi), and 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 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.
Written forms of the name are attested in two types of form in classical texts, Rugii and Rugi, corresponding to the ja-stem and a-stem forms of the original Germanic. Greek and Latin records concerning the Rugians in the 4th-6th centuries use the later form ("Rugi", implying a Germanic a-stem) but the earliest attestation of the Rugians by Tacitus is "Rugii" implying a "ja-stem", and related forms have been reconstructed for the precursors of the Rygir who lived in Norway, and the Holmryge mentioned in Widsith.
Many similar historical terms have been associated with the Rugii, although the connections of all or most of these to the Rugi are contested by some scholars: The 2nd century geographer Ptolemy located a place called Rugion on the southern Baltic coast between the Vidua, possibly the Oder river, and Vistula. citing Ptolemy II,11,12 Ptolemy also mentioned a people called the Rutikleioi in the same region and this has been interpreted by some scholars as a scribal error for Rugikleioi (in Greek). The meaning of the second part of this name form is unclear. The Ulmerugi, were a people who anciently lived on the coast near the Vistula, according to the 6th century history of the Goths written by Jordanes. Scholars have traditionally interpreted this name as "island Rugi", 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. In the 6th century Jordanes also listed "Rugi" among the tribes supposedly living in Scandinavia in his own time, near the Dani (Danes) and Suetidi (Swedes), but his list is difficult to interpret. There is a word before Rugi in the manuscripts with many variants including taetel, aetel, hethel, gethel, ethel, some of which are merged with Rugi. It was interpreted by Josef Svennung not to be another tribe, but rather a Germanic adjective connected to the Rugi: *aþala- (nobility, race), related to English atheling, which he believed could mean “chief, principal, main” in some contexts. citing Jordanes, Getica, III.24 In the medieval Widsith king list a king named Hagena is named as the ruler of people whose name (dative plural holm rycum in the Exeter Book manuscript) is reconstructed to be the Holmryge, which could be a literary reminiscence of a more ancient people such as the Ulmerugi mentioned by Jordanes. The Isle of Rügen on the southern Baltic coast in modern Germany is frequently associated with the Rugii of Tacitus, being in approximately the same region. However, medieval evidence indicates that Rügen's name is most likely derived from the medieval Slavic tribal name of the Rugiane, and any connection between the two names is unclear and disputed. The medieval Rugini are listed in a list of pagan tribes living in Germania, which was drawn up by the English monk Bede in his of the early 8th century. They are generally identified with the Slavs of Rügen, though this has also been disputed. The existence of a Norwegian people called the Holmrygir is implied in one medieval poem, Hákonarmál which mentions their soldiers being called upon by the 10th-century Norwegian king Haakon the Good. The medieval region of Rygjafylke in south west Norway, equivalent to modern Rogaland, is interpreted as "Land of the Rygir", and the term Rygir can be explained as the same term as Rugii, if it evolved according to the normal changes which happened to the Norse language.
Origins Southern Baltic coast
The earliest clear record of the "Rugii" is by Tacitus writing about 100 AD. He described them as living on the southern Baltic coast ("ocean") near the Lemovii, probably west of the Vistula estuary. Tacitus grouped these Rugii and Lemovii together with their inland neighbours the Gutones as a group of Germanic peoples () who were distinguishable from other Germanic peoples because they used round shields and short swords, and obeyed kings. citing Tacitus, Germania, 44 (English, Latin)
Other debatable mentions of these Baltic Rugi according to some scholars include Ptolemy's description of Rugion and a tribe named the Routikleioi in roughly the same area as the Rugi mentioned by Tacitus, and the Ulmerugi mentioned by Jordanes. citing Ptolemy II,11,12 and Jordanes, Getica, IV.26
In archaeology the Oksywie culture (or ) and its successor the Wielbark culture are sometimes associated with the Rugi and Lemovii, as is the Gustow group to its west in Western Pomerania, named after a site on Rügen. The Gustow group existed during the Roman imperial period from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, and it was influenced by cultures further west near the Elbe river.Magdalena Ma̜czyńska, Tadeusz Grabarczyk, Die spätrömische Kaiserzeit und die frühe Völkerwanderungszeit in Mittel- und Osteuropa, Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Łódź, 2000, p.127, Horst Keiling, Archäologische Funde von der frührömischen Kaiserzeit bis zum Mittelalter aus den mecklenburgischen Bezirken, Museum für Ur- und Frühgeschichte Schwerin, 1984, pp.8:12 It was succeeded by the archaeological Dębczyn culture.
Modern scholars have speculated that in the 2nd century AD eastern Germanic peoples 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, which led to a major collapse of old trade networks. Given the coincidence of the same name on the Baltic and Danube, the Rugi 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.
In his Getica Jordanes claimed that the 4th-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.
Scandinavia According to an old proposal which was once widely accept among scholars, the "Rugii" reported by Tacitus on the Baltic coast around 100 AD had recently migrated from southwest Norway., . For examples of reference works see and The evidence for a connection is the existence in the Middle ages of Rygjafylke in south west Norway, the land of the "Rygir", whose name is interpreted as an equivalent to "Rugi".