RUGI. – A Germanic population, apparently coming from Scandinavia (Jordanes, Getica, 25), to inhabit the coasts of western Prussia. It is mentioned by Tacitus (Germania, 43) and by Ptolemy (III, 58), who do not, however, locate its settlements precisely.
After these fleeting mentions, they are not spoken of again for a long time.
There can be no doubt, however, that, as happened with other Germanic populations, they constantly sought to move southward; indeed, in the early years of the fifth century they reached the middle Danube, where they had to endure the overpowering proximity of the Huns, whose fortunes they followed; they are in fact found among the marauding bands of Attila. After his death and the consequent collapse of the Hunnic Empire, they were received as federates of Rome, settled partly in Thrace (around Bizye and Arcadipolis) and partly in Noricum. Those in Noricum fared better because of the disappearance of all Roman authority in the country, and two of their rulers, Flacctheus and his son Fetwa, attained a certain prominence, governing fairly peacefully and procuring a measure of prosperity for the country. Important information about this period of theirs is found in the Vita s. Severini, written in 511 by Eugippius. Severinus (v.) was the apostle of Noricum and succeeded in making himself heard by the rulers of the R., before whom he defended Catholic doctrine (the R. were, like almost all the barbarians, Arians) and the interests of the Roman population of Noricum. When the Saint died in 482, King Fetwa’s brother plundered and destroyed his monasteries. When relations between the Empire of Constantinople and Odoacer became strained, the R., at the instigation of the emperor Zeno, attacked Odoacer, but were severely defeated: their king Fetwa, taken prisoner to Italy, was killed. The surviving R. then sought the support of the neighboring Ostrogoths, and under Theodoric descended into Italy against Odoacer. They perhaps lived in Italy together with the Ostrogoths, and disappeared together with them after the Byzantine reconquest of Italy.