Editing Heruli (section)

==History==
===Possible Scandinavian origins===
[[File:Scandza.PNG|thumb|right|Map of [[Scandza]] based upon one interpretation of [[Jordanes]], with the [[Småland|Herulian homeland]] located in the south of Sweden or on the Danish isles.]]
Although contemporary records locate the Heruli first near the Sea of Azov, and later on the Middle Danube, their ultimate origins are traditionally sought in [[Scandinavia]].<ref name="Angelov_Germanic"/><ref name="Green_131">{{harvnb|Green|2000|p=131}}. "[T]he Heruli who in the course of their migrations sent a party back to Scandinavia for a king from amongst the members of their royal family who had remained behind."</ref>{{sfn|Speidel|2004|p=44}}{{sfn|Ellegård|1987}} The Heruli are thus commonly believed to have migrated from the [[Baltic Sea]] to the [[Black Sea]] before the 3rd century AD. In line with this, their Black Sea neighbours the Goths, and their Danubian neighbours [[Rugii]], are both believed to have had their origins on the southern Baltic shore, and there are proposals that their ultimate origins were in Scandinavia. The idea that they came from regions near the Baltic is consistent with the fact that many of these peoples, such as the Goths, spoke [[Germanic languages]], and these originated near the Baltic.{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=116}}

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''). [[Origin stories of the Goths|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 (Germanic tribe)|Danes]] (''Herulos propriis sedibus expulerunt'').{{sfn|Jordanes|1908|p=III (23)}} This is interpreted by various scholars in at least two different ways.{{sfn|Prostko-Prostyński|2021|p=24}}
*The expulsion happened centuries before Jordanes, and the Heruli origins are ultimately in present-day Denmark or southern Sweden.{{sfn|Goffart|2006|pp=205-209}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|pp=148-152}} 
*This expulsion from Scandinavia was not long before Jordanes, and at least some of the expelled Heruli were themselves recent immigrants to Scandinavia, from the Danube. (Historians also note that Jordanes also mentions Rugii in the same passage about Scandinavia. The Rugii on the Danube, old neighbours of the Heruli, had also been recently lost their kingdom there to the Lombards.) This possibility still leaves debate open about whether the ultimate origins of the Heruli were in Scandinavia.{{sfn|Prostko-Prostyński|2021|pp=27,186}}
The evidence for this second possibility is that [[Procopius]], a contemporary of Jordanes, recounted a migration by sixth-century Heruli noblemen to Scandinavia ("[[Thule]]") from the Middle Danube, where their kingdom had been destroyed by the Lombards.<ref name="Procopius_VI_XVI"/> Apparently aligning with the story of Jordanes, when other expatriates from the Danubian kingdom established themselves to the south, in the Balkans and needed a king, they sent embassy to the Scandinavian Heruli and returned with one.<ref name="Procopius_VI_XVI">{{harvnb|Procopius|1914|p=}}, [[:Wikisource:History of the Wars/Book VI#XV|Book VI, XV]]</ref> 

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".{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|pp=148-152}}{{sfn|Goffart|2006|pp=205-209}} 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".{{sfn|Prostko-Prostyński|2021|pp=27,186}} In his review of Prostko-Prostyński, Roland Steinacher asserts that this is debatable.{{sfn|Steinacher|2022}}

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 Scandinavia] 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".{{sfn|Ellegård|1987}} This proposal has not been widely accepted.

===On the Pontic-Caspian steppe===
In 267/268 and 269/270 Graeco-Roman writers described two major campaigns by the "Eluri" into the Balkans and Aegean, which were among the last and biggest such seaborne raids from the northern Black Sea coast starting in the 250s.{{sfn|Prostko-Prostyński|2021|pp=32-34}} They are normally equated to the later Danubian Heruli.{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=124}} Although doubts have been raised about this link,{{sfn|Ellegård|1987}} the ''[[Augustan History]]'' written in the late 4th century, [[Jordanes]] in the 6th century, and [[George Syncellus]] around 800 all equated them with the Heruli known in later times.{{sfn|Schwarcz|2020|p=394}}

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 [[Claudius Gothicus|Marcus Aurelius Claudius]], who subsequently took up the title "Gothicus" due to his victory.{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|pp=55-66}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|pp=322-327}}{{sfn|Schwarcz|2020|p=393}}

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]]{{efn|the area of modern [[Istanbul]]}} and [[Üsküdar|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, Peloponnese|Argos]], and the sanctuary of Zeus at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]]. Still within 267 they reached [[Athens]], where local militias had to defend the city. It seems to have been the Heruli specifically who [[Sack of Athens (267 AD)|sacked Athens]] despite the construction of a new wall, during [[Valerian (emperor)|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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|pp=58-60}}

Further north, in 268, Gallienus defeated Heruli at the [[Nestos (river)|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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=324}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=62}}

Recent researchers such as Steinacher now have increased confidence that there was a distinct second campaign which began in 269, and ended in 270.<ref>Also see {{harvtxt|Zahariade|2010}}.</ref> 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|Peuci]], [[Greutungi]], [[Ostrogoths|Austrogothi]], [[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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|pp=63-65}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|pp=326-327}}

The Heruli are believed to have formed part of the [[Chernyakhov culture]],{{sfn|Green|2000|p=1}} which, although dominated by the Goths and other Germanic peoples,<ref name="Heather_Chernyakhov">{{harvnb|Heather|1994|p=87}}. "[S]ome 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."</ref> also included [[Bastarnae]], [[Dacians]] and [[Carpi (people)|Carpi]].{{sfn|Green|2000|p=137}} The Heruli are thus archaeologically indistinguishable from the Goths.{{sfn|Green|2000|p=1}}{{sfn|Heather|1994|p=87}}

Jordanes reports that these Heruli of the Azov area in the late 4th century AD were conquered by [[Ermanaric]], king of the Greuthungi Goths.{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|pp=77-80}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|pp=331–333}}{{sfn|Jordanes|1908|p=XXIII (116)}} Ermanaric's realm may also have included [[Baltic Finns|Finns]], [[Slavs]], [[Alans]] and [[Sarmatians]].{{sfn|Green|2000|p=137}} Before being conquered by Ermanaric, Jordanes says that the Heruli were led by a king named Alaric.{{sfn|Jordanes|1908|p=XXIII (116)}} [[Herwig Wolfram]] has suggested that the future [[Visigoths|Visigothic]] king [[Alaric I]] may have been named after this Herulian king.{{sfn|Heather|1994|p=33}}

===The "western" Heruli of the 4th century===
{{Also|Heruli (military unit)}}
[[File:Heruli seniores shield pattern.svg|right|thumb|The shield pattern of the ''[[Heruli seniores]]'', a [[Late Roman military]] unit composed of Heruli.]]
As with their neighbours the Goths, Heruli were already seen in western Europe before the empire of Attila, both as raiders and as soldiers working under Roman authority. They first appear at the time of their first ambitious campaigns in the east. In 286 [[Claudius Mamertinus]] reported the victory of [[Maximian]] over a group of Heruli and Chaibones (known only from this one report{{efn|The Chaibones may have been [[Aviones]], according to Neumann, ''Namenstudien zum Altgermanischen'', p. 316.}}) attacking Gaul. Further reports of the Heruli in the west continue in the 4th century and based on this there is a proposal that there was a distinct Western kingdom of Heruli living near the Lower Rhine, who were not descended from the Heruli who lived in the Black Sea.{{sfn|Goffart|2006|p=206}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=328}} 

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 [[Batavi (Germanic tribe)|Batavi]]an ''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.{{sfn|Liccardo|2024|p=291}}
*In about 314, the Heruli (like the Sciri and Rugii) were already listed in the ''[[Laterculus Veronensis]]'' as one of the barbarian peoples living within the Roman empire. Ellegård argues that this and other 4th century sources indicate that several of Attila's future allies in the Middle Danube were already established in the 4th century. He proposes that the Heruli were already based somewhere between Passau and Vienna.{{sfn|Ellegård|1987|p=22}} Liccardo has however criticized Ellegård's interpretation of the evidence, noting that they are placed (together with the Rugii) between the northern British Barbarians and the tribes of the Lower Rhine.{{sfn|Liccardo|2024|p=297}}
*In 360, [[Constantius II]] ordered the future emperor [[Julian the Apostate]], who then had command of forces in Gaul, to send some of his best units including the Heruli, Batavi, and others, for fighting against the Parthians in the Middle East.The records about this imply that the Heruli were a unit who had left their homes east of the Rhine, which Ellegård thinks is consistent with a base near Passau, while Liccardo emphasizes that it implies that they now lived west of the Rhine.{{sfn|Liccardo|2024|pp=292-293}}{{sfn|Ellegård|1987|p=20}} 
*In 366 the Batavian and Heruli units fought against the [[Alamanni]] near the Rhine, under the leadership of [[Charietto]], who died in the battle, and then against [[Picts]] and [[Scoti]] in Britain. They were subsequently sent to fight [[Parthia]]ns in the east.{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=67}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|pp=326-328}}
*In 405 or 406, a large number of barbarian groups [[Crossing of the Rhine|crossed the Rhine]], entering Roman Gaul, and the Heruli appear in the list of peoples given by the historian [[Jerome]]. However, this list is sometimes thought to have drawn on historical lists for literary effect. Furthermore the list included many of the Middle Danubian peoples from the East, including Roman provincials from Pannonia, and was already in the period where the Huns were causing major movements of such peoples.
*In 435 the Heruli are mentioned by Sidonius Apollinaris (Letter 7, lines 23-240) among the troops which [[Flavius Aëtius|Aëtius]], who had spent time in exile with the Danubian Huns, used to defend [[Gallia Belgica]], a Roman province, from [[Burgundians]]. (At least some of his troops such as the [[Sarmatians]] apparently came from Eastern Europe.){{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=93}}

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.{{sfn|Ellegård|1987|p=21}} 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.{{sfn|Liccardo|2024|p=292}}

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.{{sfn|Goffart|2006|p=206}}<ref>[http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/sidonius_letters_08book8.htm Letters 8.9]</ref> 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.
{|
!style="width: 50%;" |Latin
!style="width: 50%;" |English
|-
|''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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=329}} 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 [[Kingdom of the Suebi|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.{{sfn|Halsall|2007|p=260}} 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.{{sfn|Liccardo|2024|p=294}}

The 6th century correspondence of Theoderic the Great, preserved in {{lang|la|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.<ref>See for example {{harvtxt|Liccardo|2024|p=294}}, {{harvtxt|Steinacher|2017|pp=73,140}}, and {{harvtxt|Steinacher|2010|pp=328-330,348}}.</ref>

===Kingdom on the Middle Danube===
[[File:Huns450.png|thumb|upright=1|Approximate territory under Hunnic control in 450 AD]]
As already mentioned, the ''Laterculus Veronensis'' shows that Heruli and Rugii were already present somewhere in western Europe in about 314. Similar listings from later in the 4th century, the ''Cosmographia'' of [[Julius Honorius]], and probably also the ''Liber Generationis'', both listed the Heruli near the [[Marcomanni]] and [[Quadi]] who are known from many records to have lived until the 4th century in the region north of the Danube, where the Herule kingdom would later be found.{{sfn|Ellegård|1987|p=22}}{{sfn|Liccardo|2024|pp=296-298}}

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 (Western Roman emperor)|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 [[Crossing of the Rhine|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.{{sfn|Goffart|2006|loc=Ch.5}} 

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]].{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=208}} 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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=334}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=93}} 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".{{sfn|Prostko-Prostyński|2021|pp=63-64}}

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)|Morava]] river, and possibly extending as far east as the [[Little Carpathians]]. They ruled over a mixed population including Suevi, Huns and Alans.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=340}} Compared to other Middle Danubian kingdoms in this period, Peter Heather has described this Heruli kingdom as "middle-sized", similar to the [[Rugii|Rugian]] 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".{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=242}}

From this region the life story of [[Severinus of Noricum]] reports that the Heruli attacked Ioviaco near [[Passau]] in 480.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=340}} 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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=341}}

[[Odoacer]], the commander of the Imperial ''[[foederati]]'' troops who deposed the last [[Western Roman Empire|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 [[Rodulf (petty king)#King of the Heruls|Rodulph]], had made peace with Theoderic and become his allies.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=338-345}} [[Paul the Deacon]] also mentions Heruli living in Italy under Ostrogothic rule.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=347}} Peter Heather estimates that the Herulian kingdom could muster an army of 5,000-10,000 men.{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=251}}

[[File:Southeastern Europe in 520, showing the Byzantine Empire under Justin I and the Ostrogothic kingdom.png|thumb|Polities in southeastern Europe c.500 AD before the Lombard destruction of the Herulian kingdom]]
Theoderic's efforts to build a system of alliances in Western Europe were made difficult both by counter diplomacy, for example between [[Merovingians|Merovingian]] [[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.{{sfn|Sarantis|2010|p=366}}

===Later history===
After the Middle Danubian Herulian kingdom was destroyed by the [[Lombards]] in or before 508, Herulian fortunes waned. According to [[Procopius]], in 512 a group including royalty went north and settled in [[Thule]], which for Procopius meant Scandinavia.{{sfn|Goffart|2006|pp=205-209}} Procopius noted that these Heruli first traversed the lands of the [[Slavs]], then empty lands, and then the lands of the [[Danes (Germanic tribe)|Danes]], until finally settling down nearby the [[Geats]].{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=430}}<ref name="Procopius_VI_XVI"/> Peter Heather considers this account to be "entirely plausible" although he notes that others have labelled it a "fairy story", and given that it only appears in one source it is possible to deny its validity.{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=242}}

Another Heruli group were assigned civil and military offices by [[Theoderic the Great]] in [[Pavia]] in north Italy.{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=144}}

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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=350}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|pp=144-145}}

[[Anastasius I (emperor)|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.{{sfn|Sarantis|2010|p=369}} This area had been re-acquired by the empire from the Goths, who now ruled Italy from Ravenna.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|pp=350-351}} 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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|pp=351-352}} 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|Arian]] Christians.{{sfn|Sarantis|2010|p=372}}

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 the Herulian|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).{{sfn|Goffart|2006|p=209}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=147}} [[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.{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=225}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|pp=354-355}} 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.{{sfn|Goffart|2006|p=209}} 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.{{sfn|Sarantis|2010|pp=393-397}}
 
In 549, when the Gepids fought the Romans, and Heruli fought on both sides.{{sfn|Sarantis|2010|p=394}} 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|Avars]].{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|pp=354-355}}

Peter Heather has written that: 
{{blockquote|by c.540 being a Herule had ceased to be the main determinant of individual behaviour; the Heruli had ceased to operate together on the basis of that shared heritage, and different Heruli were adopting different strategies for survival in the new political conditions which even caused them to fight on opposing sides. After c.540, we still find small groups called Heruli fighting for the East Romans in Italy, and it is noticeable that the Roman commanders were careful to appoint for them leaders of their own race. Thus some sense of identity probably remained. That said, we are clearly dealing with a few fragments of the original group, and, in the prevailing circumstances, Herule identity had no future.{{sfn|Heather|1998|p=109}}}}

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.{{sfn|Sarantis|2010|p=385}} However it appears that by this period the semi-independent Heruli near Belgrade became Roman provincials.{{sfn|Sarantis|2010|p=402}}

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.{{sfn|Steinacher|2010|p=355}}{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=159}}

[[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.{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=240}}

Along with the Rugii and Sciri, the Heruli may have contributed to the formation of the [[Bavarii]].{{sfn|Green|2000|p=321}}