Editing Rugii (section)

==Danubian and Italian Rugii==
[[File:Europe and the Near East at 476 AD.png|thumb|right|300px|Europe at the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD]]
One of the first clear records of the Rugii interacting with the Roman empire is in the [[Laterculus Veronensis]] of about 314. In a list of barbarians under the emperors it lists them together with their future neighbours the Heruli, but in a part of the list between the Scottish barbarians and the tribes north of the lower Rhine. Unlike the Heruli, they do not appear in other such 4th-century lists.{{sfn|Liccardo|2023}}

The Rugii are listed as one of the northern peoples who were led by Attila over the Rhine, to invade Gaul, and eventually fight the [[Battle of the Catalaunian Plains]] in 451. After Attila's death in 453, the Rugii were among the Hunnic confederates who successfully rebelled against his sons, defeating them and the Ostrogoths at the [[Battle of Nedao]] in 454. Whether or not the Rugian kingdom existed before then, and in what form, is unknown. 

A group of Rugii were settled near Constantinople after Nadao, in [[Bizye]] and [[Lüleburgaz|Arcadiopolis]] where they provided troops to the empire.{{sfn|Steinacher|2017|p=114}}

With Roman power now also weakened along the Danube, the majority of the Rugii became part of the independent Rugian kingdom, ruled by [[Flaccitheus]] in [[Rugiland]], a region presently part of lower Austria (ancient [[Noricum]]), north of the Danube.<ref name=Foulke31ff>William Dudley Foulke, Edward Peters, ''History of the Lombards'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974, pp.31ff, {{ISBN|0-8122-1079-4}}</ref> After Flaccitheus's death, the Rugii of Rugiland were led by king [[Feletheus]], also called Feva, and his wife Gisa.<ref name=Foulke31ff/> Yet other Rugii had already become [[foederati]] of [[Odoacer]], who was to become the first [[king of Italy]] in 476.<ref name=Foulke31ff/> 
By 482 the Rugii had converted to [[Arianism]].<ref name=britannica/> 

Feletheus' Rugii were utterly defeated by Odoacer in 487; many came into captivity and were carried to Italy; and Rugiland was settled by the [[Lombards]].<ref name=Foulke31ff/> Records of this era are made by [[Procopius]],<ref>Procopius, ''Bellum Gothicum'' VI,14,24; VII,2,1.4</ref> [[Jordanes]] and others.{{sfn|Andersson|2003}}

Two years later, Rugii joined the [[Ostrogoths|Ostrogothic]] king [[Theodoric the Great]] when he invaded Italy in 489. Within the [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]] in Italy, they kept their own administrators and avoided intermarriage with the Goths.<ref>"At the behest of Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno, Theodoric of the Ostrogoths invades Italy and founds a kingdom based in Rome. Many of the remaining Rugii join Theodoric in his invasion and settle in self-contained communities, refusing intermarriage with the Ostrogoths and other Germanic peoples there. They retain their identity until the fall of the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy. The Langobards migrate into the former Rugii territory to fill this vacuum."[http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsEurope/BarbarianRugii.htm Germanic Tribes: Rugii]</ref><ref name=britannica/> They disappeared after [[Totila]]'s defeat in the [[Gothic War (535–554)]].<ref name=britannica/>