RF-150 Jordanes

Life and career

Jordanes produced the Getica and a separate Roman historical compilation during Justinian's reign. His Gothic narrative joins migration stories, royal genealogy, warfare, and the incorporation of Gothic history into a Roman universal framework. He acknowledged a relationship with Cassiodorus's lost Gothic history while also describing his own selection and additions. The work preserves material invaluable for Attila, Gothic kings, and the interpretation of Italy's conquest, but its early origins and continuous genealogies cannot be accepted as an unbroken factual record.

Contribution and historical significance

Written around the time of renewed war in Italy, it gives Justinianic victory and Amal dynastic continuity a particular resonance. His dossier is an archive of historical construction as well as information: how a people, a royal house, and their conquerors could be placed within one narrative of the past.

Landmarks

• c. 551 CE — Getica and Roman historical compilation.

Historical uncertainty

Do not merge the separate works because a file label groups them together. Claims about early migrations and genealogies require especially careful treatment.

Connected dossiers: Cassiodorus, Theodoric the Great, Attila, Justinian I, Priscus of Panium.