HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

ETHNIC AND NATIONAL HISTORY CA. 500‒1000 49of the Romans, making it only a further claim to glory on the partof Justinian and Belisarius that they were able to conquer such awarlike nation (315–16). 17Jordanes quotes from many Greek and Latin sources: PompeiusTrogus, Dio Chrysostom, Ptolemy, Josephus, Dexippus, an unidentifiedFabius, Rufinus of Aquileia, Prosperus, Priscus, the Roman History ofSymmachus, and the Gothic histories of Ablabius and Cassiodorus,although it is likely that some of these authorities are not used firsthand.18 His Latinity and literary skills in general have been judgedadversely by many scholars, from his editor Theodor Mommsen whowrote that if Cassiodorus had taken the origin of the Goths andmade it Roman history, then Jordanes had rendered it Moesian 19 toa recent scholar who describes the Getica as “the illiterate epitomemade and supplemented by Jordanes”. 20 These harsh evaluations,which overlook the varieties and possibilities of sixth-century Latin,have made it easier to dismiss Jordanes himself, his political views,and his conception of the Getica as crucial factors in the interpretationof the work.The design of the Getica is simple: it is divided into three sectionsof comparable length. The first of these (4–130) consists largely oflegends of origin combined with geographic-ethnographic descriptionsof the various lands inhabited by the Goths on their way tothe Mediterranean. The narrative reaches from the tribe’s first mythicmigration from the island of Scanzia (Scandinavia) to the Hunnishconquest of the Gothic kingdom north of the Black Sea circa A.D.370. The second section (131–245) follows the fortunes of the Visigothsto Jordanes’s own time, which finds them rulers of southern Gauland Spain. The third section (246–316) goes back to A.D. 370 andrelates the history of the Ostrogoths, first under Hunnish overlordshipand then as a free people settled in Pannonia and later in Italy. 21The Getica has always been read in terms of its relation to Cassiodorus’slost History of the Goths. One school has searched in it for17Jordanes also shows intense awareness of the danger to Constantinople fromvarious barbarian nations (Romana 388) and is clearly in favor of harsh militarymeasures to keep them in line.18Mommsen, Preface to Romana et Getica, xxx–xliv.19Mommsen, Preface to Romana et Getica, xliv.20Barnish (1984), 336.21An outline is provided in Appendix 1.