Jordanes
East Roman (Byzantine) bureaucrat and historian
520 CE to 570 CE
Jordanes, also written Jordanis or, uncommonly, Jornandes, is a 6th-century Roman bureaucrat, who turns his hand to history later in life.
While he also writes Romana about the history of Rome, his best-known work is his Getica, written in Constantinople about 551.
It is the only extant ancient work dealing with the early history of the Goths.
Jordanes had been asked by a friend to write this book as a summary of a multi-volume history of the Goths (now lost) by the statesman Cassiodorus.
He was selected for his known interest in history (he was working on Rome's), 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 Moesia, modern northern 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.
According to his own introduction, he only had three days to review what Cassiodorus had written, meaning that he must also have relied on his own knowledge.
Some of his statements are laconic.
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Suetidi is considered to be the Latin form of Svíþjóð, the Old Norse name for the Swedes.
Jordanes describes the Suetidi and Dani as being of the same stock and the tallest of people.
The Suehans are known to the Roman world as suppliers of black fox skins and, according to Jordanes, have very fine horses, similar to those of the Thyringi of Germania (alia vero gens ibi moratur Suehans, quae velud Thyringi equis utuntur eximiis).
The Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson will also write that the Swedish king Adils (Eadgils) had the finest horses of his day.
Jordanes, a Roman bureaucrat who had spent his career in Moesia, publishes The Origin and Deeds of the Goths in approximately 551, written in Constantinople.
It is significant as the only remaining contemporaneous resource to deliver the full story of the origin and history of the Goths.
Another aspect of this work is its information about the early history and the customs of Slavs.
Thurisind and Audoin again take to the field when the Lombard-Gepid truce expires in 552, and this time the clash is unavoidable.
Audoin had reached an agreement with Justinian by which Constantinople promises to send him military support in exchange for the five thousand five hundred Lombards sent to help the general Narses in the Emperor's war in Italy.
The two-year truce is now close to expiring and the Lombards ask Constantinople to respect the alliance which has been established between them.
The Emperor finds an excuse to break the new alliance with the Gepids by claiming they had again ferried Slav raiders.
He puts together an army with renowned commanders in its ranks such as Germanus' sons Justin and Justinian, Aratius, the Herulian Suartua, and Amalafrid, brother-in-law of Audoin.
A revolt that erupts in Ulpiana diverted the bulk of the army; only a force under Amalafrid reaches the battlefield.
Scholars debate when the third Lombard–Gepid War started; it is agreed that it took place two years after the second war.
The possible dates are either 551 or 552.
The 551 date is upheld by those who argue that since in 552 Audoin had already dispatched 5,500 of his warriors to Narses' Italian campaign, the third Lombard–Gepid War must have already ended by then; against this scholars such as Walter Pohl protest that this is in contradiction with Audoin's reproaches to Justinian on the few troops sent against the Gepids, despite his massive support to Narses.
When the treaty expires, Audoin attacks the Gepids and Thurisind is crushed in the decisive battle of the Asfeld held west of Sirmium.
The battle is mentioned by Jordanes in the Romana as one of the most bloody ever fought in the region, with no fewer than sixty thousand warriors killed.
The king's son Turismod also dies, killed by Audoin's son Alboin in a duel that, according to Paul the Deacon, decided both the battle and the war.
After the battle, the Gepids are never again able to play a formative role in the shaping of events.
The Gepids' defeat causes a geopolitical shift in the Pannonian Basin, as it ends the danger represented by the Gepids to the Empire.
The Gepids' utter defeat could have meant the end of their kingdom and its conquest by the Lombards, but Justinian, wanting to maintain an equilibrium in the region, imposes an "eternal peace" that saves the Gepids; it will be observed for ten years, surviving both Thurisind and Audoin.
It may be on this occasion, and not before the war, that Lombards and Gepids sent troops to Narses as part of the peace treaty imposed by Constantinople.
In this interpretation, the small number of Gepid warriors sent could be explained with the heavy losses taken in the war and the resentment felt towards Justinian.
The Emperor also imposes some territorial concessions on Thurisind, obligating him to return Dacia Ripensis and the territory of Singidunum.
To reach a complete peace Thurisind has first to deal with Ildigis, who had found hospitality at Thurisind's court.
Audoin demands yet again to have him turned in, and Justinian joins in the request.
Thurisind, despite his reluctance to resume the war with both Audoin and Justinian, does not want to openly breach the rules of hospitality and thus tries to evade the request by demanding in his turn to have Ostrogotha given to him; in the end, to avoid both openly giving in and at the same time renewing the war, both kings murder their respective guests but keep secret their involvement in the act.
Justinian dispatches a small force (two thousand men) under Liberius to Hispania, according to the historian Jordanes; the imperial troops makes landfall in June or July 552, probably at the mouth of the Guadalete or perhaps Málaga.
Liberius joins with Athanagild to defeat Agila as he marches south from Mérida towards Seville in August or September 552.