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Heruli

The Heruli were a Germanic people, originating, apparently, in southern Scandinavia, who lived in Eastern Europe between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.

They are reported to have been driven out of Jutland or thereabouts sometime in the early 3rd century. Thereafter, they wandered generally eastward, becoming over time more closely associated with the Ostrogoths. They managed to sack Byzantium in 267, but their eastern contingent was virtually annihilated at Nis two years later.

Serving first under the Goths, and later clients of the Huns, they re-emerged in the second half of the 5th century, to form a confederation of tribes in Italy and Austria. This Kingdom was destroyed by the Ostrogoths under Theodoric the Great, and thereafter Herulian fortunes waned. They disappear from historical record by circa 550 CE.

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