Jordanes

Jordanes (Latin Iordanes; also Jornandes) was a 6th-century Roman bureaucrat and historian of Gothic origin who wrote in Latin. Details of his life are sparse. He is generally placed in the Eastern Roman world, with ties to the Gothic court in Italy and to the broader imperial administration, and is often described as a notary or secretary in service to the Goths during or after Theodoric the Great’s rule.

His principal work is the Getica, or De Origine Actibusque Getarum, written around 551. In it he claims to have compiled material from Cassiodorus’ now-lost Origines and other sources. The Getica presents a narrative of the Goths’ origins, their migrations, and their later settlement in various parts of Europe, including the rise of Gothic kingdoms. The work blends legendary material with historical elements and aims to trace the ethnogenesis of the Gothic people.

Significance: Jordanes’ Getica is one of the chief surviving sources on early Gothic history. It preserves information from earlier authors and influenced later medieval and modern understandings of the Goths, including writers such as Bede. Although its reliability is debated and it reflects late antique ethnographic concerns, it remains a foundational text for the study of Gothic history and late antique ethnography.