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The Heruli (also Eruli, Herules, Herulians) were one of the smaller Germanic peoples of Late Antiquity, known from records in the third to sixth centuries AD. The best recorded group of Heruli established a kingdom north of the Middle Danube, probably near present day Lower Austria, where the kingdom of the Rugii was. These two kingdoms were among several which precipitated out of the Hun empire, following the death of Attila in 453 and the Battle of Nedao in 454. After the conquest of this Heruli kingdom by the Lombards in 508, splinter groups moved to present day Sweden, Ostrogothic Italy, and the region near present day Belgrade, which was under Eastern Roman control.
The Danubian Heruli are generally seen as descendants, or at least relatives, of the earlier "Eluri" who lived near the Sea of Azov during in the 3rd century. In 267–270 these Eluri took part together with Goths and other eastern European peoples in two massive raids into Roman provinces in the Balkans and Aegean Sea, attacking not only by land, but notably also by sea. The equation of these "ELuRi" with the "ERuLi" was made by several Byzantine authors, and is still widely accepted; although some scholars such as the linguist Alvar Ellegård have argued against it. Ellegård himself argued that the Heruli were a wandering warrior brotherhood, and not a tribe in the normal sense of the term. More commonly, because a group of 6th-century Heruli moved from the Danube to Scandinavia, some scholars believe that the Heruli had their earliest origins in Scandinavia. Whatever their ultimate origin, there are proposals that there were different Heruli kingdoms in several parts of Europe. Based upon indirect evidence, it is speculated that there was a "Western Heruli" settlement based near the North Sea, possibly on the Lower Rhine or in Jutland. One reason for this is that in 286 AD, only a few years after the eastern raids, an Heruli army were defeated in an attack on Roman Gaul, which some historians speculate to have been an attack by sea. On the other hand, soon after first being noted in contemporary records as Eastern European raiders, Heruli also began entering the Roman empire and serving in its military, where they developed a particularly notable reputation already in the 4th century, and at first this was mainly in the Western Roman Empire. A new Heruli unit was stationed in northern Italy, and there are indications that the Heruli kingdom just outside the Roman frontier near Lower Austria may already have been founded in western Europe by this time.
After the Battle of Adrianople in 378 the Middle Danubian region was overwhelmed with armed groups and settlers from the east including Alans, Goths and Huns, and Rome lost control. In 409 AD Heruli were among the "ferocious" nations, mostly from the Middle Danubian area, that Saint Jerome described as occupying all of Roman Gaul. In the meantime, the new Hunnic empire of Attila established its base in the Middle Danubian region, and some form of the Heruli kingdom known from later records probably continued to exist within his empire, as did the kingdoms of the Rugii and Gepids. After the death of Attila in 453, the Danubian Heruli fought in the Battle of Nedao in 454, although it is not certain which side they took among his various former allies. They also participated in successive conquests of Italy by Odoacer (476), Theoderic the Great (493), Narses (554), and probably also the Lombards (starting in 568). Under Roman command Heruli soldiers played important military roles in Balkan, African, and Italian conflicts. Their last known kingdom at Belgrade was under Roman domination, and other Heruli integrated into larger political entities such as the Gepids and Lombards. The Heruli disappear from the historical record around the time of the conquest of Italy by the Lombards. In this period the Middle Danube was coming under the control of the Pannonian Avars, and Slavic languages were becoming common in that region.
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