The Turcilingi (also spelled Torcilingi or Thorcilingi) were an obscure barbarian people, or possibly a clan or dynasty, who appear in historical sources relating to Middle Danubian peoples who were present in Italy during the reign of Romulus Augustulus (475–76). Their only known leader was Odoacer (Odovacar), but he was described as a ruler of several ethnic groups. Although various origins have been proposed including Hunnic, recent research favors the idea that the Turcilingi might be identical to the Thuringii, who are first mentioned in association with a type of horse, known to the Romans but became politically important only after the fall of Odoacar. Primary sources The Turcilingi are mentioned in only one independent source: they appear three times in the works of Jordanes, twice in his Getica and once in his Romana. They are also mentioned once in the Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon in a passage that is a derivative of Jordanes and once in the Historia Miscella of Landolfus Sagax in a passage derived from Paul. Johann Kaspar Zeuss, followed by Karl Müllenhoff, believed that the 'Ρουτίχλειοι (Routikleioi) mentioned in the Geographia of Ptolemy (II.11.7) were the Turcilingi, but this thesis requires a complex etymology. Landulf Sagax lists them together with the Sciri among the nations which participated on the side of Attila and the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Jordanes speaks of the Turcilingi, though he makes no mention of them at Châlons. The Turcilingi were joined with several other barbarian tribes, like the Sciri, Rugii, and Heruli, under Odoacer as foederati of the Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus, who was a puppet of his father, Flavius Orestes. The barbarians demanded from Orestes in return for their military service some Italian land on which to settle. They were denied. According to Jordanes: When Theodoric the Great was looking for a pretext to invade Italy in 493, he petitioned the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno by reminding him of the "tyranny" (unlawful rule) of the city of Rome by Turcilingi and Rugii. According to Jordanes, Theodoric gave the following justification: Reynolds and Lopez note that Jordanes consistently writes the word often translated as "Rugii", the name of a Middle Danubian Germanic people, with an "o" and not a "u" when referring to Odoacer. They compare the third mention, in the Romana (344) which describes him as "genere Rogus" which could be read as