Jordanes

Who is Jordanes?

Jordanes, also written Jordanis or, uncommonly, Jornandes, was a 6th-century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life.

While he also wrote Romana about the history of Rome, his best-known work is his Getica, written in Constantinople about AD 551. It is the only extant ancient work dealing with the early history of the Goths.

Jordanes was asked by a friend to write this book as a summary of a multi-volume history of the Goths by the statesman Cassiodorus. He was selected for his known interest in history, his ability to write succinctly, and because of his own Gothic background. He had been a high-level notarius, or secretary, of a small client state on the Roman frontier in Scythia Minor, modern south-eastern Romania and north-eastern Bulgaria.

Other writers, e.g. Procopius, wrote works which are extant on the later history of the Goths. As the only surviving work on Gothic origins, the Getica has been the object of much critical review. Jordanes wrote in Late Latin rather than the classical Ciceronian Latin.