Note 043
Among the Greeks, this national appellation has a singular form, as an undeclinable word, of which many fanciful etymologies have been suggested. I have perused, with pleasure and profit, a dissertation de Origine Russorum (Comment. Academ. Petropolitanae, tom. viii. p. 388 - 436) by Theophilus Sigefrid Bayer, a learned German, who spent his life and labors in the service of Russia. A geographical tract of D'Anville, de l'Empire de Russie, son Origine, et ses Accroissemens, (Paris, 1772, in 12mo.,) has likewise been of use.

Extra note by the Rev. H. H. Milman 1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)

The later antiquarians of Russia and Germany appear to aquiesce in the authority of the monk Nestor, the earliest annalist of Russia, who derives the Russians, or Vareques, from Scandinavia. The names of the first founders of the Russian monarchy are Scandinavian or Norman. Their language (according to Const. Porphyrog. de Administrat. Imper. c. 9) differed essentially from the Sclavonian. The author of the Annals of St. Bertin, who first names the Russians (Rhos) in the year 839 of his Annals, assigns them Sweden for their country. So Liutprand calls the Russians the same people as the Normans. The Fins, Laplanders, and Esthonians, call the Swedes, to the present day, Roots, Rootsi, Ruotzi, Rootslaue. See Thunman, Untersuchungen uber der Geschichte des Estlichen Europaischen Volker, p. 374. Gatterer, Comm. Societ. Regbcient. Gotting. xiii. p. 126. Schlozer, in his Nestor. Koch. Revolut. de 'Europe, vol. i. p. 60. Malte-Brun, Geograph. vol. vi. p. 378.

The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 55