Editing Heruli (section)

===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}}