The Lugii (or Lugi, Lygii, Ligii, Lugiones, Lygians, Ligians, Lugians, or Lougoi) were a group of tribes mentioned by Roman authors living in ca. 100 BC–300 AD in Central Europe, north of the Sudetes mountains in the basin of upper Oder and Vistula rivers, covering most of modern southern and middle Poland (regions of Silesia, Greater Poland, Mazovia and Lesser Poland).
Most archaeologists identify the Lugians with the Przeworsk culture, which is also associated with the Vandals, and it has been suggested that the Lugians and Vandals may have been closely related or even the same. While this culture was strongly Celtic-influenced in early Roman times, the Lugii are also sometimes regarded as Germanic, like the Vandals.
They played an important role on the middle part of the Amber Road from Sambia at the Baltic Sea to the provinces of Roman Empire: Pannonia, Noricum and Raetia.
The Lugii are not mentioned at all by Pliny the Elder, who instead mentions the Vandilii living in the same area as one of the most important peoples of Germania, including the tribes Burgundiones, Varines, Charines and Gutones.
The next mention of Lugii are the times of the Roman emperor Claudius (41–54). According to Tacitus's Annales, in 50 'a great multitude' of Lugians and Hermunduri, led by the Hermundurian Vibilius, took part in the fall of Vannius, who the Romans had imposed as a ruler to replace Maroboduus. In the book Germania (43:3), Tacitus mentions the name Vandilii as a "genuine and ancient name", but does not mention the Vandilii in the list of peoples at all. The 12th century Chronica Polonorum by Wincenty Kadlubek mentions the alliance between the Lugii and the Romans.
Ptolemy mentions the Lugi Omani (Λοῦγοι οἱ Ὀμανοί), the Lugi Diduni (Λοῦγοι οἱ Διδοῦνοι) and the Lugi Buri (Λοῦγοι οἱ Βοῦροι) located on or near the upper Vistula in Germania Magna in what is now south Poland (Book 2, Chapter 10, 4th map of Europe). Ptolemy does not mention the Vandals at all. Herwig Wolfram notes that "In all likelihood the Lugians and the Vandals were one cultic community that lived in the same region of the Oder in Silesia, where it was first under Celtic and then under Germanic domination."
Notes
Sources
Primary sources
- Tacitus, 'Germania XLIII