Istanbul , ancient Constantinople , capital of the Eastern Roman Empire , where Jordanes wrote his ciency.

Jordanes or Jornandes is a historian of Latin goth ^sixth century. He is best known as the author of the book From actibusque Getarum origin , made in 551 , abstract a lost work of Cassiodorus , the . This is not only the only contemporary ethnographic work of the epic of the Goths , but also the oldest historical source on the history and mores of the early Slavs.

Biography

Originally Ostrogothic but converted to Catholicism, no one knows of what he says Jordanes himself in his books. There was a time notary Gunthigis General (the "Baza") in Italy, and later became bishop of Crotone in Calabria. He stayed in Constantinople in 551 , accompanied the Pope Vigilius in Ravenna , capital of Italy Ostrogothic then capital of the Exarchate of Ravenna at the time Byzantine.

Witness the " Gothic wars "that culminated in the decisive defeat of the Ostrogoths, his countrymen, and exterminate them in the 550s , Jordanes traced the history of the Goths, their attempts at settlement in the various territories traversed since their migration from the Baltic (land of Gothia in Eastern Europe), his writings can better know the time of the Hun empire and wars of succession that followed.

Work

There are two known works of Jordanes:

• Ciency or the History of the Goths, which will be specifically discussed here;
• A History of Rome, which goes until the year 552 and that includes former authors ( Jerome Stridon ).

He is an author on which there is little in French studies, so John did not evoke Bayet once in Latin literature .

Scheme of the History of the Goths "

The Gothic History opens with a geographical presentation and ethnography of the countries of northern Europe , particularly from an island that Jordanes, referring to the geographer Ptolemy , called " Scandza " . The author begins his account of the expansion of the Goths with the emigration of the head Brig who, with three ships of settlers, would have left long ago to Scandza to found on the shores of Pomerania village Gothiscandza (25, 94 ). From the pen of Jordanes (or perhaps even that of Cassiodorus), the demigod of Getae quoted by Herodotus , Zalmoxis becomes a former king of the Goths (39). Jordanes tells how the Goths fought a pharaoh named VESOS , then how, after having raised a dispute with Agamemnon , they have "plundered Troy and Troy . Part properly historical (not mythical) story of Jordanes begins with the first battle between the Goths and the Roman army in ^the third century , and ends with the defeat of the Goths before the troops of Byzantine general Belisarius. Jordanes concludes his history by dedicating it to the winners of the Goths, more than 2000 years after the beginnings of the migration of people from the North.

Scope of history book

The original version of the History of Cassiodorus did not survive, the small book of Jordan remains one of the key sources for the study of Great invasions , especially as regards the expansion of the Ostrogoths and Visigoths from the third century BC. AD Jordanes tells us that the study relied primarily on Cassiodorus traditional songs (carmina prisca in Latin) of the Goths, but current research cast doubt on this assertion : it seems that History Cassiodorus is mainly intended to give the Gothic aristocracy of a glorious past, a story similar to that of large families of senatorial order of the Roman Empire.

A controversial passage from the book of Jordan, which identifies the ancient people of Veneda (mentioned by Tacitus , Pliny and Ptolemy ) with the Slavs in the ^sixth century , was quoted in 1844 by several scholars of Danubian Europe to prove the existence of a Slavic ethnic group long before the last phase of the Lower Roman Empire. Today, researchers , based on the absence of archaeological and historiographic data clear, reject this argument.

That said, De origin of Jordan is also popular for medieval story that gives the campaign of Gaul a certain Riothamus , "King of Bretton, one possible source of inspiration for early Arthurian legends.

A key issue in determining the historical value of this work is the accuracy of the chronology of the characters cited therein. The contents of the book leaves taken at different points of view: the most skeptical critics argue that the origin is mostly from mythological and those who admit that Jordan could be the author really believe that he has described his contemporaries, the barbarians of ^the sixth century , and that for various reasons, its main source of information, Cassiodorus , is not reliable: first, because it is unoriginal. Many passages are drawn from Greek and Latin classics, taking the description of the Goths that of Germans who were not necessarily of this ethnic group . Moreover, it seems that Jordan has distorted the story by summarizing Cassiodorus, and surreptitiously introducing contemporary names (from ^the sixth century ) .

While a person can take at face value anything said Jordan, a total rejection of his remarks would be exaggerated: for example, when Jordanes says that the Goths left Scandinavia in 1490 BC. J. Chr. It is to some extent in agreement with the findings of some researchers, as the historian Austrian Herwig Wolfram , who feels that a clan of the tribe Guta had to leave Scandinavia long before the dynasty Gothe of Amali. This clan may have contributed to the ethnogenesis of Gutones of Eastern Pomerania (cf. Wielbark culture ) . Another example is the literary historian David S. Potter believes that the name of King CNIV given by Jordanes, is authentic, since that name, which is absent from the mythical genealogy of the Gothic kings, could not be identified by the Latin writer as a source of the ^third century .

Sources for the History of the Goths "

In the letter to his brother, who serves as a preface to De Originally Jordanes writes that he intends

"... To strengthen into a single short volume twelve books of Senator . "

Jordanes acknowledges that he could check himself from the book of Cassiodorus, never having more hands, and he could deviate from the exact words, but he thought remembering all content of structure . He continued by stating that he has completed this source of relevant extracts from Latin and Greek authors, added an introduction and conclusion, and some information that he had personal knowledge. The text, given its content composite is considered as an attempt to sort the documentary sources by consolidating their lessons by themes.

Former secretary of a magister militum goth name Gunthigis, Jordanes had to be well placed to know the traditions of the Goths without having to rely on other writers, but it is not apparent anywhere in his book, and even some passages where the author was relying on in fact occur in classic authors .

Jordanes and Cassiodorus

Cassiodorus, a senior official of the empire from Italy (a native of Squillace , in Calabria ), reached the pinnacle of his career during the reign of Theodoric , emperor whose policy was to reconcile Romans and Goths. This is probably at the request of Theodoric that Cassiodorus wrote a book on the Goths, who had, in fact, to prove the antiquity of the nobility and the government the ability of these barbarians.

When Theodoric died in 526, Cassiodorus kept its administrative costs without losing sight of the objective which the former king had assigned. A letter from the king Athalaric the Roman Senate, dated 533 and probably written by Cassiodorus, evokes the history of the Goths which Cassiodorus "reconstructed Works Cited in "History of the Goths"

The events, characters and peoples mentioned in the "History of the Goths" are presented as in previous centuries when Jordanes lived. If we take this connection for granted, they predate the history of Scandinavia.

Jordanes cites several ancient authors he has consulted the books: some of the works in question are lost, others have survived. Mierow gave the following list of these authors, while pointing out that Jordan has been able to rely on other authors without mentioning them explicitly:

• Ablabius. This historian, otherwise unknown, is the author of an essay Gothorum gentis ("The people goth"), now lost.
• Dexippe the Vandals and Heruli.
• Dion, who can refer either to Dion Cassius , or Dio Chrysostom , the author also ciency. Jordanes is drawn to his description of Britain.
• Fabius. This author, otherwise unknown, reportedly described the siege of Ravenna , in a work now lost.
• Flavius Josephus mentions briefly the Goths (in which he sees Scythians ) in chap. IV.29 of his History of the Jews.
• Livy , briefly mentions the Goths in his Roman History II.10.
• Lucan quotes Amali V.43 in his poem, the Pharsalia.
• Pompeius Trogus , whose Historiae Philippic are known to us as the epitome of Justin.
• Pomponius Mela , which Chorographia describes the known world, including the Nordic and Far West.
• Priscus some anecdotes concerning Attila.
• Ptolemy for the description of Scandinavia in Part III ciency.
• Strabo , the earliest reference in respect of Great Britain.
• Symmachus : his quotations from the Historia Augusta are put to about Maximinus II Daia.
• Tacitus , an obligatory reference in respect of Great Britain, on the De Agricola.
• Virgil , cited for his evocations of the borders of the known world, including the legendary Thyle .

Tradition and establishment of the text

A manuscript of the "Gothic History" was rediscovered in Vienna in 1442 by the Italian humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini . The editio princeps appeared in 1515 on the presses of Konrad Peutinger , and was followed by several editions .

The reference edition remains today one of the erudite German Theodor Mommsen . The best manuscript used to modern editions was a codex of ^the eighth century writing to Heidelberg , but disappeared in the fire at Mommsen's own house, July 7, 1880. Subsequently, we discovered another manuscript of the ^eighth century containing chapters I to XLV, Codex Basile, preserved in the State Archives of Palermo . We finally have two other manuscripts of lesser value, the Vaticanus Palatinus ( ^tenth century ), and the manuscript of Valenciennes ( ^ninth century ).

Jordanes's book was already known long before the publication that gave Mommsen in 1882: Edward Gibbon quote in the sum in 6 volumes entitled History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), and before it Degoreus Whear (1623) cited two books already in Jordan: From regnorum ac temporum successionis and De rebus Getica .

The Latin Jordanes

The structure of Latin Jordanes shows some instability, in which scholars have seen evidence that the author no longer had a clear reference grammar . If we accept the mid- ^sixth century to the date of composition of De origin, then it is too early to detect signs of progress towards a Romance language specific.

Jordan describes himself to agrammaticus ("man without letters") before his conversion. This qualifier is sometimes obscure interpreted as an allusion to his knowledge of Latin. However, the morphological instability is common to all authors writing in the vulgar Latin , and secondly Jordanes has not started writing shortly after his conversion, but only after attending the Latin speakers for years, and after reading several books. His style may reflect the state of Latin at the time of writing the expansion of the Goths.

The American Latinist Mierow (1908) summarized the proxies from the Latin of Jordan:

• Spelling. - Writing more words moved away from their classic form, however, that Jordanes knew almost certainly: for example,
  • "Grecia" replaces "Graecia";
  • "Eoropam" "EuroPAM";
  • "Atriatici" "Adriatic".
• Bending system. - The names are torn between different versions , the verbs of different conjugations. Among the most frequent alterations, there are passages from the 4th to the 2nd declension ("lacunar" becomes "Laco"), adjectives of the second pass to the third declension declination (magnanimus "becomes" magnanimous "), the ablative in-i disappear ("husband" to "pool"). The kind of names, the voice of verbs may change. A shift to modern forms of Latin languages is the disappearance of some variations of names, such as "corpus" (indeclinable). Similarly, the final-m of the accusative disappears, the preceding vowel remain either unchanged or changed into-o (as was done in Italian and Romanian ): "Danubio" replaces "Danubium.
• Syntax. - Confusion of cases and their improper use after a preposition (inter Danubium Margumque fluminibus), changes in time within the same proposal (.. and egress transeunte), clearing the subjunctive before the code , confusion between main clause and subordinate, the Misuse of subordinating conjunctions.
• Net. - Jordanes wrote germanus for frater suus proprius for, civitas for urbs, Pelagus for pool, etc..

References

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