This identification has been denied by historian R. W. Burgess, who starts by observing that the claim reposes on a single passage from Jordanes ' Romana.

Some scholars claim, that while acceptance of Jordanes at face value may be too naive, a totally skeptical view is not warranted.

Jordanes records that Decius ' son Herennius Etruscus was killed by an arrow early in the battle, and to cheer his men Decius exclaimed, " Let no one mourn ; the death of one soldier is not a great loss to the republic.

In 552, Justinian dispatched a force of 2, 000 men ; according to the historian Jordanes, this army was led by the octogenarian Liberius.

Jordanes, also written Jordanis or, uncommonly, Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life.

Jordanes was 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.

To his sister's son Gunthigis, also called Baza, the Master of the Soldiery, who was the son of Andag the son of Andela, who was descended from the stock of the Amali, I also, Jordanes, although an unlearned man before my conversion, was secretary.

Already in the Mommsen text edition of 1882 it was suggested that the very long name of Jordanes ' father should be split into two parts: Alanovii Amuthis, both genitive forms.

Paria was Jordanes ' paternal grandfather.

Jordanes writes that he was secretary to Candac, dux Alanorum, an otherwise unknown leader of the Alans.

Jordanes was notarius, or secretary to Gunthigis Baza, a magister militum, nephew of Candac, of the leading Ostrogoth clan of the Amali.

Some manuscripts say that he was a bishop, some even say bishop of Ravenna, but the name Jordanes is not known in the lists of bishops of Ravenna.

According to the Jordanes ' Getica, around 400 the Ostrogoths were ruled by Ostrogotha and derived their name from this " father of the Ostrogoths ", but modern historians often assume the converse, that Ostrogotha was named after the people.

Jordanes says that Attila was afraid of sharing the fate of the Visigothic king Alaric, who died shortly after sacking Rome in 410.

It was first described by the 6th century Goth scholar Jordanes in his Getica wherein he described the inhabitants of Scandza ( Scandinavia ).

The official Byzantine position, adopted by Procopius and even by the Romanized Goth Jordanes, writing just before the conclusion of the Gothic Wars, was that Totila was a usurper: Jordanes ' Getica ( 551 ) overlooks the recent successes of Totila.

In later interpretations, which begin with Jordanes ( 6th century AC ) and have proliferated during the 19th and 20th century, mainly in Romania, he was regarded as the sole god of the Getae ( not to be confounded in this context with the Thracians or their relatives, the Dacians ) or as a legendary social and religious reformer of the Getae people to which he would have taught, following Herodotus, the belief in immortality, so that they considered dying merely as going to Zalmoxis.

Jordanes supports this hypothesis by telling us on the one hand that he was familiar with the Geography of Ptolemy, which includes the entire Balto-Slavic territory in Sarmatia, and on the other that this same region was Scythia.

The historian Jordanes states that Attila was enticed by the Vandals ' king Gaiseric to wage war on the Visigoths.

Jordanes states that Theodoric was thrown from his horse and trampled to death by his advancing men, but he also mentions another story that had Theodoric slain by the spear of the Ostrogoth Andag.

According to Jordanes ( following Priscus ), sometime during the peace following the Huns ' withdrawal from Byzantium ( probably around 445 ), Bleda died ( killed by his brother, according to the classical sources ), and Attila took the throne for himself.

This, combined with their post-battle rewards, prompted them to raise Alaric " on a shield " and proclaim him king ; according to Jordanes ( a Gothic historian of varying importance, depending upon who is asked ), both the new king and his people decided " rather to seek new kingdoms by their own work, than to slumber in peaceful subjection to the rule of others.

Regarding the location of Gothiscandza, Jordanes states that one shipload " dwelled in the province of Spesis on an island surrounded by the shallow waters of the Vistula.

* Cassiodorus: A lost history of the Goths used by Jordanes

Jordanes reports that the Huns were led at this time by Balamber while modern historians question his existence, seeing instead an invention by the Goths to explain who defeated them.

Much of what we know about the Battle of Châlons comes from The History and Deeds of the Goths, written by Jordanes

In the preface to his Getica, Jordanes writes that he is interrupting his work on the Romana at the behest of a brother Castalius, who apparently knew that Jordanes had had the twelve volumes of the History of the Goths by Cassiodorus at home.

Jordanes concludes the work by stating that he writes to honour those who were victorious over the Goths after a history of 2030 years.

* Jordanes, The Origins and Deeds of the Goths, translated by Charles C. Mierow.

That the Tervingi were the Vesi / Visigothi and the Greuthungi the Ostrogothi is also supported by Jordanes.

But Cassiodorus does not supply any details about his correspondent or the size and nature of his pension, and Jordanes, whose history of the period abridges an earlier work by Cassiodorus, makes no mention of a pension.

That the Tervingi were the same people as the Vesi / Visigothi and the Greuthungi as the Ostrogothi is also supported by Jordanes.

The 6th century chronicler Jordanes reports a tradition that they had been driven out of their homeland by the North Germanic Dani, which places their origins in the Danish isles or southernmost Sweden.

ēsa ) and Gothic ( as reported by Jordanes ) anses " half-gods ".

This identification of Nepos is confirmed by a passage in Jordanes ' Getica.

According to a tale related by Jordanes, Gothiscandza was the first settlement of the Goths after their migration from Scandinavia ( Scandza ) during the first half of the 1st century CE.

Jordanes ( XXIV: 121 ) also relates that Filimer expelled the völvas, who were called Aliorumnas ( probably Halju-runnos, meaning " hell-runners " or " runners to the realm of the dead ", which refers to their shamanistic experiences during trance ).

Jordanes, in Getica and mentions the Riparii as auxiliaries of Flavius Aetius during the Battle of Châlons in 451: " Hi enim affuerunt auxiliares: Franci, Sarmatae, Armoriciani, Liticiani, Burgundiones, Saxones, Riparii, Olibriones ..." The Riparii may not have been the Ripuarian Franks, as they do not appear for certain under that name until their final subjugation by Clovis I.

Jordanes ' recorded number of 15, 000 dead on either side for this skirmish is not verifiable.

Jordanes reports the number of dead from this battle as 165, 000, excluding the casualties of the Franko-Gepid skirmish previous to the main battle.

Jordanes does cite some writers well before his time, to whose works he had access but we do not, and other writers whose works are still extant.

Jordanes refers to himself as agrammaticus before his conversion.

He is briefly mentioned in Jordanes ( Getica 180 ): " Now this Attila was the son of Mundiuch, and his brothers were Octar and Ruas who are said to have ruled before Attila, though not over quite so many tribes as he.

Johannes Magnus invented a list of kings of Sweden with six Erics before Eric the Victorious, where he started counting from Jordanes ' Berig as Eric I.

This migration would have taken place about 230 years before Jordanes wrote his " Origin of the Goths ".

Jordanes had read Ptolemy, but he claimed to be writing of times before those of Ptolemy.