The
Heruli were a
Germanic people, originating, apparently, in
southern Scandinavia, who lived in Eastern
Europe between
Baltic Sea and
Black Sea.
They are reported to have been driven out of
Jutland or thereabouts sometime in the early
3rd century. Thereafter, they wandered generally eastward, becoming over time more closely associated with the
Ostrogoths. They managed to sack
Byzantium in
267, but their eastern contingent was virtually annihilated at
Nis two years later. Serving first under the
Goths, and later clients of the
Huns, they re-emerged in the second half of the
5th century, to form a confederation of tribes in
Italy and
Austria. This Kingdom was destroyed by the Ostrogoths under
Theodoric the Great, and thereafter Herulian fortunes waned. They disappear from historical record by circa
550 CE.
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