RUGH
RUGH,
RUGI (Eth.
Ῥοῦγοι or Eth.
Ῥόγοι), an important people in the north of Germany, occupying a considerable part of the coast of the Baltic. (Tac.
Germ. 43.) Their country extended from the river Viadus in the west to the Vistula in the east, and was surrounded in the west, by the Sideni, in the south by the Helvecones, and in the east by the Sciri, who were probably a Sarmatian tribe. Strabo does not mention them, and Ptolemy (
2.11.14) speaks of a tribe
Ῥουτίκλειοι, who are probably the same as the Rugii.
After their first appearance in Tacitus, a long time passes away during which they are not noticed, until they suddenly reappear during the wars of Attila, when they play a conspicuous part. (Sidon. Apoll.
Paneg. ad Avit. 319; Paul. Diac.
de Gest. Rom. p. 534, ed. Erasm.)
After the death of Attila, they appear on the north side of the Danube in Austria and Upper Hungary, and the country there inhabited by them was now called Rugia, and formed a separate kingdom. (Procop.
Bell. Goth. 2.14, 3.2; Paul. Diac.
Longob. 1.19.)
But while in this latter country no trace of their name is now left, their name is still preserved in their original home on the Baltic, in the island of
Rügen, and in the town of
Rügenwalde, and perhaps also in
Rega and
Regenwalde. (Comp. Latham on
Tac. l.c., and Prolegom. p. xix., who strangely believes that the Rugii of Tacitus dwelt on the
Gulf of Riga.)
[
L.S]
