Lugii

The Lugii (also Lugi or Lygii; Ancient Greek: Λοῦγιοι) were a group of peoples in central Europe, recorded by Greek and Roman authors from the early 1st century AD to the 3rd century AD. Rather than a single tribe, Tacitus describes them as a nomen, designating an overarching grouping that covered several communities (civitates) settled between the Oder and the Vistula. Several scholars have interpreted the Lugii as a multi-ethnic union in which earlier Celtic elements were gradually absorbed into Germanic formations. In the early 1st century AD, Strabo describes the Lugii as a large people drawn into the kingdom of Maroboduus, while Tacitus later records their role in the expulsion of the Suebic king Vannius in 50 AD. Under Domitian, in 92 AD, the Lugii sought Roman support against the Suebi. They then largely disappear from Greek and Roman sources after the 3rd century AD, apart from a disputed late notice in Zosimus concerning the reign of Probus (276–282). Scholars have also often connected the Lugii, wholly or in part, with the later Vandals, with the name Lugii eventually being replaced or paralleled by Vandilii in ancient tradition, though this identification has also been questioned as probably more complex than a simple equation by some scholars. In archaeological terms both the Lugii and the Vandilii are generally identified with the Roman era Przeworsk culture.