History of the Goths

Title(s):
  • History of the Goths
  • Historia Gothorum
    (Historia Gothorum, History of the Goths)
  • Historia gothica
    (Historia Gothica, Gothic history)
  • Historia
    (Historia, History)
Author:
Period covered:
Early origins of Goths-526?
Language:
Latin
State of Preservation:
Fragmentary
Genre:
  • Secular history (ethnic history)
  • Secular history (general)
Remarks:
Debate about the Gothic history has focused on the relation with Jordanes, whose Getica is mainly based on Cassiodorus. Scholarship now tends to see Jordanes as an independent scholar, and the Gothic history of Cassidorus can therefore not be easily reconstructed from Jordanes' Getica. Momigliano (1955) argued that Jordanes summarized an updated version of Cassiodorus, but that is untenable. Vitiello (2006; 2014) has sought to revive elder views that  the Excerpta Valesiana II are based on Cassiodorus, but there is no evidence to support this idea.
Edition - Translation:
  • P. Van Nuffelen, L. Van Hoof (2020) The fragmentary Latin histories of Late Antiquity (A.D. 300-650): Edition, translation and commentary. Cambridge.
Fragments:
  • Jordanes, Getica, pr. 1-2 53.6-54.1
  • Ordo generis Cassiodororum 20-22
  • Cassiodorus, Variae 9.25.4-6
  • Cassiodorus, Variae Pr. 11
  • Cassiodorus, Variae 12.20.4
Users:
Bibliography:
  • S.J.B. Barnish (1984) 'The genre and composition of Cassiodorus' "Gothic History"'. Latomus 43: 336-361.
  • A.S. Christensen (2002) Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the history of the Goths: Studies in a migration myth. Copenhagen.
  • M. Coumert (2007) Origines des peuples: Les récits du Haut Moyen Age occidental (550-850) (Collection des Études Augustinienne: Série Moyen Age et Temps Modernes, 42). Paris.
  • B. Croke (1987) 'Cassiodorus and the Getica of Jordanes'. Classical Philology 82: 117-134.
  • A.J. Fridh (1973) Magni Aurelii Cassiodori Variarum libri XII (Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina, 96). Turnhout.
  • A. Gallonier (1996) 'Anecdoton Holderi ou Ordo generis Cassiodororum: Introduction, édition, traduction et commentaire'. Antiquité tardive 4: 299-312.
  • A. Goltz (2008) Barbar, König, Tyrann: Das Bild Theoderichs des Grossen in der Überlieferung des 5. bis 9. Jahrhunderts (Millennium studies, 12). Berlin.
  • A. Momigliano (1955) 'Cassiodorus and Italian culture of his time'. Proceedings of the British Academy 41: 207-245 = In: Secondo contributo alla storia degli studi classici, Rome: 191-229.
  • T. Mommsen (1882) Iordanis Romana et Getica (Monumenta Germaniae historica: Auctores antiquissimi, 5.1). Berlin.
  • J.J. O'Donnell (1979) Cassiodorus. Berkeley.
  • M. Vitiello (2006) 'Cassiodoriana: Gli Excerpta Valesiana, l'aduentus e le laudes del principe Teoderico'. Chiron 36: 113-133.
  • M. Vitiello (2014) 'Theoderic and the Italic kingdom in Cassiodorus' Gothic history: A hypothesis of reconstruction'. Klio 96: 645-663.