Heruli

The Heruli (spelled variously in Latin and Greek) were an East Germanic tribe who migrated from Scandinavia to the Black Sea in the third century AD. They were part of the series of raids and incursions carried out by Gothic groups in the Balkans and Greece from the 250s AD.

In 267 AD, together with the Goths they sacked and razed Byzantium, Sparta and Athens. They were defeated by the Romans in 269 AD at or near Naissus (modern Niš in present-day Serbia). In the 4th century, they were subjugated by the Ostrogoths and later the Huns. Breaking free from the Huns after the Battle of Nedao in 454 AD, they established their own kingdom and joined Odoacer, the commander of the Imperial foederati troops who deposed the last Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus in 476 AD. In 508 they were defeated by the Lombards and are reported to have migrated back to Scandinavia. Their name is related to earl (see erilaz) and was probably an honorific military title.

History

Origins

The 6th-century AD chronicler Jordanes reports a tradition that they had been driven out of their homeland by the North Germanic Dani, which places their origins in the Danish isles or southernmost Sweden. According to Procopius, they maintained close links with their kinsmen in Thule (Scandinavia). He relates that the Heruls killed their own king during their stay in the Balkans (cf. Domalde) and that they sent an emissary to Thule requesting a new king. Their request was granted, and a new king arrived with 200 young men.

Heruli (military unit)

The Heruli was an auxilia palatina unit of the Late Roman army, active between the 4th and the 5th century. It was composed of 500 soldiers and was the heir of those ethnic groups that were initially used as auxiliary units of the Roman army and later integrated in the Roman Empire after the Constitutio Antoniniana. Their name was derived from the people of the Heruli. In the sources they are usually recorded together with the Batavi, and it is probable the two units fought together. At the beginning of the 5th century two related units are attested, the Heruli seniores in the West and the Heruli iuniores in the East.

History

The Heruli probably belonged to the army of the Caesar Julian, and probably fought in the Battle of Strasbourg (357), even if the sources do not mention them.

In 360, before Julian received the order to send most of his troops to Emperor Constantius II for a campaign in the East, the Heruli, the Batavi and two numeri Moesiacorum were sent in Britain under the command of Lupicinus, Julian's magister militum, probably to counter a rebellion. They embarked at Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and arrived at Rutupiae. Later the Batavi and the Heruli returned to the continent, but it is unknown when this happened.