Jordanes

Jordanes was a 6th-century Eastern Roman official of Gothic ancestry who spent his career in administration before taking up the pen. He produced two histories: one surveying Rome (Romana) and another on his people's past (Getica). The Gothic work, composed in Late Latin rather than the polished Ciceronian style, drew on Cassiodorus's now-lost writings — which Jordanes claimed to have consulted for only three days, forcing him to rely heavily on his own recall. Getica became one of just two ancient texts on the early Goths to survive antiquity, the other being Isidore of Seville's later chroni…