The Herulian Kingdom of Italy by J.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 36.

The Herulian Kingdom of Italy.

By J.

The Heruli were a Vandalic tribe of ancient Germany. The first historic mention of them is about the beginning of the third century. In the great movement of the Goths from the Baltic to the Black Sea, the Heruli and the Burgundians are particularly mentioned. (See Decline and Fall, chap. 10, par. 10, note.) They fixed their habitation on “the marshy lands near the Lake Mæotis [Sea of Azov]; were renowned for their strength and agility; and the assistance of their light infantry was eagerly solicited, and highly esteemed, in all the wars of the barbarians.”—Id., chap. 25, par. 31.

In the third naval expedition of the Goths, about A. D. 260, when Cyzicus was ruined; when Athens was sacked; when Greece was desolated; and when the temple of Diana at Ephesus was destroyed; the Heruli bore a most prominent part. Indeed it is stated by one historian—Syncellus—that this expedition “was undertaken by the Heruli” [Id., chap. 10, par. 37, note]. And when the barbarian host had spread “the rage of war, both by land and by sea, from the eastern point of Sunium to the western coast of Epirus,” and had “advanced within sight of Italy,” and when the Emperor Gallienus “appeared in arms and checked the ardor of the enemy,” “Naulobatus, a chief of the Heruli, accepted an honorable capitulation; entered with a large body of his countrymen into the service of Rome; was invested with the ornaments of the consular dignity;” and so was the first barbarian that ever held the office of Roman consul.—Id., chap. 10, par. 38.

When the great Hermanric—A. D. 331-361—subjected all the nations from the Black Sea to the Baltic, “the active spirit of the Heruli was subdued by the slow and steady perseverance of the Goths; and after a bloody action, in which the king was slain, the remains of that warlike tribe became a useful accession to the camp of Hermanric.”—Id., chap. 25, par. 31.

When in A. D. 375-6, the nation of the Huns overran the Alani, subdued the Ostrogoths, and forced the Visigoths over the Danube, the Heruli retired from the coast of the Sea of Azov, into the forests of central Germany where we find them under the dominion of Attila; and when “the nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Châlons,” the Heruli, under the standard of Attila, bore no inferior part in that memorable conflict.—Id., chap. 35, par. 9.

After the death of Attila, when the battle of the Netad had restored to their independence the subject nations, a multitude of the youth of those nations enlisted in the service of the empire, and became “the defense and the terror of Italy,” and finally subverted the Western Empire. Gibbon says:

“The nations who had asserted their independence after the death of Attila, were established, by the right of possession or conquest, in the boundless countries to the north of the Danube; or in the Roman provinces between the river and the Alps. But the bravest of their youth enlisted in the army of confederates, who formed the defense and the terror of Italy; and in this promiscuous multitude, the names of the Heruli, the Seyri, the Alani, the Turcilingi, and the Rugians, appear to have predominated.”—Chap. 36, par. 28.

In this “promiscuous multitude” the Heruli predominated, even above those tribes which were predominant, and being so conspicuous both in numbers and in valor, their name was given to the whole body of “confederates,” and the power which they soon established in Italy was called the kingdom of the Heruli. These confederates seem to have gone to Italy A. D. 454-456, for we find them already there in 457, when the Emperor Majorian, in preparing an expedition against the Vandals, was compelled to hire, in addition to them, “many thousands” of their former comrades in the service of Attila.

“Majorian, like the weakest of his predecessors, was reduced to the disgraceful expedient of substituting barbarian auxiliaries in the place of his unwarlike subjects; and his superior abilities could only be displayed in the vigor and dexterity with which he wielded a dangerous instrument, so apt to recoil on the hand that used it. Besides the confederates, who were already engaged in the service of the empire, the fame of his liberality and valor attracted the nations of the Danube, the Borysthenes, and perhaps of the Tanais. Many thousands of the bravest subjects of Attila, the Gepidæ, the Ostrogoths, the Rugians, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and the Alani, assembled in the plains of Liguria; and their formidable strength was balanced by their mutual animosities.”—Id., chap. 36, par. 12.

In the negotiations between Attila and Theodosius the younger, A. D. 446-448, Attila sent five or six successive embassies to the court of Constantinople, and the last two ambassadors were the fathers of the two men who were, respectively, the last Roman emperor of the West, and the first barbarian king of Italy.

“The two last ambassadors of the Huns, Orestes, a noble subject of the Pannonian province, and Edecon, a valiant chieftain of the tribe of the Seyri, returned at the same time [A. D. 448] from Constantinople to the royal camp. Their obscure names were afterwards illustrated by the extraordinary fortune and the contrast of their sons; the two servants of Attila became the fathers of the last Roman emperor of the West, [Augustulus] and of the first barbarian king of Italy [Odoacer].”—Id., chap. 34, par. 12.

Following the example of the “confederates” Orestes also went to Italy, but not till A. D. 475.

“The example of these warriors was imitated by Orestes, the son of Tatallius, and the father of the last Roman emperor of the West. Orestes, who has been already mentioned in this history, had never deserted his country. His birth and fortunes rendered him one of the most illustrious subjects of Pannonia. When that province was ceded to the Huns, he entered into the service of Attila, his lawful sovereign, obtained the office of his secretary, and was repeatedly sent ambassador to Constantinople, to represent the person, and signify the commands, of the imperious monarch. The death of that conqueror restored him to his freedom; and Orestes might honorably refuse either to follow the sons of Attila into the Scythian desert, or to obey the Ostrogoths, who had usurped the dominion of Pannonia. He preferred the service of the Italian princes, the successors of Valentinian; and as he possessed the qualifications of courage, industry, and experience, he advanced with rapid steps in the military profession, till he was elevated, by the favor of [the Emperor] Nepos himself, to the dignities of patrician, and master-general of the troops. These troops had been long accustomed to reverence the character and authority of Orestes, who affected their manners, conversed with them in their own language, and was intimately connected with their national chieftains, by long habits of familiarity and friendship. At his solicitation they rose in arms against the obscure Greek, who presumed to claim their obedience; and when Orestes, from some secret motive, declined the purple, they consented, with the same facility, to acknowledge his son Augustulus, as the emperor of the West. By the abdication of Nepos, Orestes had now attained the summit of his ambitious hopes; but he soon discovered before the end of the first year, that the lessons of perjury and ingratitude, which a rebel must inculcate, will be retorted against himself; and that the precarious sovereign of Italy was only permitted to choose, whether he would be the slave, or the victim, of his barbarian mercenaries.”

“The dangerous alliance of these strangers had oppressed and insulted the last remains of Roman freedom and dignity. At each revolution, their pay and privileges were augmented; but their insolence increased in a still more extravagant degree; they envied the fortune of their brethren in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, whose victorious arms had acquired an independent and perpetual inheritance; and they insisted on their peremptory demand, that a third part of the lands of Italy should be immediately divided among them. Orestes, with a spirit, which, in another situation, might be entitled to our esteem, chose rather to encounter the rage of an armed multitude, than to subscribe the ruin of an innocent people. He rejected the audacious demand; and his refusal was favorable to the ambition of Odoacer, a bold barbarian, who assured his fellow-soldiers, that, if they dared to associate under his command, they might soon extort the justice which had been denied to their dutiful petitions. From all the camps and garrisons of Italy, the confederates, actuated by the same resentment and the same hopes, impatiently flocked to the standard of this popular leader; and the unfortunate patrician, overwhelmed by the torrent, hastily retreated to the strong city of Pavia, the episcopal seat of the holy Epiphanites. Pavia was immediately besieged, the fortifications were stormed, the town was pillaged; and although the bishop might labor, with much zeal and some success, to save the property of the church, and the chastity of female captives, the tumult could only be appeased by the execution of Orestes. His brother Paul was slain in an action near Ravenna; and the helpless Augustulus, who could no longer command the respect, was reduced to implore the clemency of Odoacer.”—Id., chap. 36, par. 23.

(To be continued.)