Jordanes

c.550. Latin historian. A native Alan, he served as notarius to an Alan king, later becoming an orthodox bishop in Italy. His Getica, written about 551, an epitome of Cassiodorus's lost Gothic Histories, relates the earliest migrations of the Goths to their defeat by Belisarius in 541, then carries events beyond Cassiodorus in hopes of reconciling Gothic and Roman royal families. Uncritical and profuse with errors, it is nevertheless much cited as principal extant source for our knowledge of the Goths, especially their settlement on the Black Sea under Hermanric (mid-fourth century) and of Attila's second invasion of Gaul. He also authored a short compendium of universal history from Creation to 552, de regnorum ac temporum successione, also known as the Romana.