Heruli
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The Heruli (spelled variously in Latin and Greek) were a nomadic Germanic people, who were subjugated by the Ostrogoths, Huns, and Byzantines in the 3rd to 5th centuries. The name is related to earl (see erilaz) and was probably an honorific military title.
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[edit] History
The 6th century chronicler Jordanes reports a tradition that they had been driven out of their homeland long before by the Dani, which would have located their origins in the Danish isles or southernmost Sweden. According to Procopius, they maintained close links with their kinsmen in Thule (Scandinavia). He relates that the Heruls killed their own king during their stay in the Balkans (cf. Domalde), and that they sent an emissary to Thule requesting a new king. Their request was granted, and a new king arrived with 200 young men.
The Heruls are first mentioned by Roman writers in the reign of Gallienus (260-268), when they accompanied the Goths ravaging the coasts of the Black Sea and the Aegean. The mixed warbands managed to sack Byzantium in 267, but their eastern contingent was virtually annihilated in the Balkans at the Battle of Naissus (Serbia) two years later, the battle that earned Marcus Aurelius Claudius his surname "Gothicus." A western contingent of Heruli are mentioned at the mouth of the Rhine in 289.
By the end of the 4th century the Heruls were subjugated by the Ostrogoths. When the Ostrogothic kingdom of Ermanaric was destroyed by the Huns in about 375, the Heruls became subject to the Hunnic empire. Only after the fall of the Hunnic realm in 454, were the Heruls able to create their own kingdom in southern Slovakia at the March and Theiss rivers.
After this kingdom was destroyed by the Langobards, however, Herulian fortunes waned. Remaining Heruls joined the Langobards and moved to Italy, and some of them sought refuge with the Gepids. Marcellinus comes recorded that the Romans (meaning the Byzantines) who allowed them to resettle depopulated "lands and cities" in Moravia, near Singidunum (Belgrade); this was done "by order of Anastasius Caesar" sometime between June 29 and August 31, 512. After one generation, this minor federate kingdom disappeared from the historical records.
Records indicate, however, that the Heruli served in the armies of the Byzantine emperors for a number of years, in particular in the campaigns of Belisarius, when much of the old Roman territory, including Italy, Syria, and North Africa was recaptured. Pharus was a notable Herulian commander during this period. Several thousand Heruli served in the personal guard of Belisarius throughout the campaigns. They disappear from historical record by the mid-6th century.
According to Procopius, many Heruli returned to Scandinavia and settled beside the Geats (Gautoi). The places where they are assumed to have resettled have been identified with Vermland or the provinces of Blechingia and Värend, two districts where the women had equal rights of inheritance with their brothers. Some noble Swedish families in the area also claim to be descendants of the returning Heruli. It should be noted that such identifications are not widely accepted. It has also been suggested that it was returning Heruli who first colonized Iceland.[1]
No "Heruli" are mentioned in Anglo-Saxon, Frankish or Norse chronicles, so it is assumed they were known in the north and west by another name. Encyclopædia Britannica 1911 suggested that, since the name Heruli itself is identified by many with the Anglo-Saxon eorlas ("nobles"), Old Saxon erlos ("men"), the singular of which (erilaz) frequently occurs in the earliest Northern inscriptions, that "Heruli" may have been a title of honor.
From the end of the 3rd century, Heruls are also mentioned as raiders in Gaul and Spain, where they are mentioned together with Saxons and Alamanni. These Heruls are usually regarded as Western Heruls; their settlements are assumed to have been somewhere at the lower Rhine.
[edit] Cultural features
[edit] Same-sex relations
According to Procopius, bishop of Caesaria, the Heruli practiced a warrior-based, ritual homosexuality. In his De Bello Gothico, Procopius is scandalized by the fact that "...and they have sex contrary to the ends of divine law, even with men and asses" (VI. xiv. 36) (Greek: καὶ μίξεις οὐχ ὁσίας τελοῦσιν, ἄλλας τε καὶ ἀνδρῶν καὶ ὄνων). Procopius does not elaborate upon this brief statement. However, he also noted that the young squires of the "Erouloi" (Greek for Heruli) go into battle without even a shield to protect themselves; once proven in battle, their Heruli masters then permitted them to carry one in battle, signifying their entrance into full manhood.
Historian of homosexuality, David Greenberg, believes that in this passage, Procopius implied that the homosexuality practiced by the Heruli was ritualistic and initiatory in nature, for "pederasty was practiced in connection with the transition from youth to manhood" in the early Germanic "men's societies (Männerbünde)" as well as being common to all Indo-European cultures. Again, this initiatory pederasty is identical to the practices of the closely-related Suebian tribe, the Taifali, as reported by Ammianus Marcellinus (31.9.5). (See Greenberg's The Construction of Homosexuality, 1988, p. 243.)
Ritual, warrior-based pederasty (erotics between an adult and a youth) are held to have been common to all Indo-European peoples according to a school of thought elaborated by French historians such as Bernard Sergent; variant forms of ritual homosexuality are well-documented and were particularly institutionalized throughout ancient Greece, the Scythians (who were Indo-Iranian), the Celts, and others (Homosexualité et initiation chez les peuples indo-européens, Éditions Payot 1996; about the Heruli and Taifali, pp. 477-504).
[edit] External links
- This article incorporates some information taken from http://www.hostkingdom.net/ with permission.
- The Heruls by Troels Brandt, 2006
- Heroli in Paul's History of the Lombards i.20: (in English)
- 'The Heruls' by Troels Brandt
- various resources on the Erils/Heruli
- The Heruli; The forefathers of the Samogitians by the Northvegr Foundation
