Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the history of the Goths
Subtitle: studies in a migration myth
By: Arne Søby Christensen ; [translated by Heidi Flegal].
Publisher: Museum Tusculanum Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: Copenhagen
Language: eng
Number of pages: 391
Subjects: Cassiodorus, Senator, ca. 487-ca. 580.; Jordanes, 6th cent.; Germanic peoples.; Goths.; Civilization, Medieval.; Europe -- History -- 392-814 -- Historiography..
Description: A study in the myth of the early history of the Goths as told in the Getica written by Jordanes in AD 551. Jordanes claimed they emigrated from the island of Scandza (Sweden) in 1490 BC, thus giving them a history of more than two thousand years. He found this narrative in Cassiodorus's Gothic history, which is now lost. The present study demonstrates that Cassiodorus and Jordanes did not base their accounts on a living Gothic tradition of the past, as the Getica would have us believe. On the contrary, they got their information only from the Graeco-Roman literature. The Greeks and Romans, however, did not know of the Goths till the middle of the third century AD. Consequently, Cassiodorus and Jordanes created a Gothic history partly through an erudite exploitation of the names of foreign peoples, partly by using the narratives about other peoples' history as if they belonged to the Goths.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [351]-384) and index.
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Copenhagen, 2000.