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Jordanes, a Goth in the service of the Roman empire, wrote a history of the Goths in Latin in 551.[1] He made it as a short version of the twelve books on the Goths by Cassiodorus Senator, which are lost.[2] For the Huns it is the most important Latin source after Ammianus. Through it the account of Attila by the eyewitness Priscus survives in its fullest form. That account includes the battle of the Catalaunian Plains, Attila’s death and funeral and the battle of the Nedao.[3]

Author

Jordanes tells his own story in a single sentence. His grandfather Paria was secretary to Candac, the leader of a group of Alans and Sciri settled south of the lower Danube after the fall of Attila’s empire. Jordanes himself, “though an unlettered man before my conversion”, was secretary to Gunthigis, also called Baza, a master of soldiers. Gunthigis’s father Andag was of the line of the Amal kings.[4] Jordanes calls himself a Goth by descent at the end of the book.[5] Some scholars made him an Alan from the form of his father’s name, which the manuscripts give corruptly.[6] His grandfather was nearly a contemporary of the Catalaunian Plains. Jordanes was an elderly man when he wrote.[7]

The book does not say what his “conversion” was. It has been taken for baptism, for a change from the Arian to the Nicene faith and for entry into religious life.[8] One identification makes him the bishop Jordanes of Crotona, who was with Pope Vigilius in Constantinople in 551.[9] He most probably wrote in Constantinople.[10]

The work

Jordanes broke off a history of Rome, the Romana, to write the Getica at the request of a friend, Castalius. He then finished the Romana.[11] In the preface he says that he no longer had Cassiodorus’s books to consult. He had read them for three days, by the kindness of Cassiodorus’s steward, and remembered the sense if not the words. He added matter from Greek and Latin histories and wrote the beginning and the end himself.[12] The preface itself is taken almost word for word from Rufinus.[13]

Cassiodorus wrote his Gothic history for Theodoric and for an educated Roman public. He meant to restore to the Amal line the splendour that he held belonged to it.[14] The Gothic songs and stories he drew on were pagan, and he left out their pagan and barbarous features.[15] His Huns have a wicked greatness. They are greedy and brutal but brave, and his Attila does nothing cowardly.[14]

The Huns in the Getica

The Huns enter three times. The first is their origin. Citing old tradition, Jordanes tells how the Gothic king Filimer drove out certain witches, whom he called in his own tongue Haliurunnae. Unclean spirits in the wilderness begot the Huns on them, a stunted people of the marshes with scarcely human speech.[16] Citing Priscus, he places the Huns beyond the Sea of Azov, where hunters followed a hind across the marsh into Scythia.[17] The Huns then overran the Alpidzuri, Alcildzuri, Itimari, Tuncarsi and Boisci and subdued the Alans.[18] Their appearance and the cutting of their sons’ cheeks follow Ammianus almost word for word.[19] Ammianus gave the cutting as a way to stop the beard. In Jordanes the boys were to learn to bear wounds before they tasted milk.[20][14] Then Balamber, king of the Huns, attacked Hermanaric and the Ostrogoths.[21]

The second and longest is Attila. Jordanes introduces him as lord of all the Huns and almost the sole ruler of all the peoples of Scythia. He quotes Priscus on the embassy to Attila’s court.[22] He gives Attila’s parentage, the murder of Bleda, Attila’s portrait and the finding of the sword of Mars.[23] He narrates the war in Gaul and the battle on the Catalaunian Plains at length. He then narrates the invasion of Italy and the meeting with Pope Leo at the Mincius. Last comes Attila’s death on the night of his wedding to Ildico, with the funeral, the dirge and the strava.[24]

The third is the end. Jordanes tells how Attila’s sons quarrelled over the subject peoples. The Gepid king Ardaric rose against them, and Ellac fell at the Nedao.[25] He knows where Hernac and his kinsmen settled. He knows how Attila’s sons fought the Ostrogoths and how Dintzic was driven from Bassiana.[26] He records one word of the Huns’ language, Var, their name for the Dnieper.[27]

The geography of Scythia adds the peoples of the Black Sea steppe in his own day. The Acatziri were a brave people who knew no agriculture and lived by their flocks and by hunting.[28] From the land of the Bulgars the Huns had developed into two branches, the Altziagiri near Cherson and the Saviri. The Hunuguri were known for the trade in furs.[29]

Sources

Jordanes names Priscus six times in the Hun passages. He names him for the homeland beyond the Sea of Azov, the embassy to Attila, the sword of Mars, the turning back from Rome, Attila’s death and Marcian’s dream.[30][31] On grounds of style, some scholars assign further passages to Priscus, among them the bribe of Gaiseric, the meeting with Leo and the history of Attila’s sons. They hold that every account of Attila in the Getica comes from him.[31] They also find three passages enlarged from other sources. These are the moral on Bleda’s death, the Gothic claim to the victory of 451, and the meeting with Leo, which adds Prosper’s chronicle.[31] The Priscus passages thus reach the Getica through Cassiodorus, and through Jordanes’s memory of Cassiodorus.

Jordanes takes the first outbreak of the Huns against the Goths from Orosius. He takes the description of the Huns from Ammianus.[32][33]

Reliability

For the Catalaunian Plains the Getica is practically the sole authority.[34] Its account has a strong Gothic colouring. The credit for the victory goes to the Goths, as in the chronicle of Cassiodorus.[31] Where Jordanes and Ammianus disagree on the Gothic war of the 370s, Ammianus is the one to follow.[35] Cassiodorus may not always have quoted Priscus exactly. In some places, as in the story of the sword and in the description of Attila’s residence, the Getica renders Priscus better than the Byzantine excerpts that preserve his own words.[35]

Jordanes dates only by consuls, and rarely. The Huns were driven out of Pannonia after almost fifty years in the consulship of Hierius and Ardabures. Roman troops with Hun auxiliaries took the field against the Visigoths in the consulship of Theodosius and Festus.[36] The years of the Catalaunian Plains, of Attila’s death and of the Nedao are not in the text.[37]

Editions

The standard edition is that of Theodor Mommsen, whose paragraph numbers are used for citation.[38] The repository holds the Latin after la.wikisource, without an apparatus, and the English translation with commentary by Charles C. Mierow.[38]

The passage

Jordanes, Getica 121 to 122: the origin of the Huns

Post autem non longi temporis intervallo, ut refert Orosius, Hunnorum gens omni ferocitate atrocior exarsit in Gothos.

Nam hos, ut refert antiquitas, ita extitisse conperimus.

Filimer rex Gothorum et Gadarici magni filius qui post egressu Scandzae insulae iam quinto loco tenens principatum Getarum, qui et terras Scythicas cum sua gente introisse superius a nobis dictum est,

repperit in populo suo quasdam magas mulieres, quas patrio sermone Haliurunnas is ipse cognominat,

easque habens suspectas de medio sui proturbat longeque ab exercitu suo fugatas in solitudinem coegit errare.

Quas spiritus inmundi per herimum vagantes dum vidissent et eorum conplexibus in coitu miscuissent,

genus hoc ferocissimum ediderunt, quae fuit primum inter paludes, minutum tetrum atque exile quasi hominum genus nec alia voce notum nisi quod humani sermonis imaginem adsignabat.

Tali igitur Hunni stirpe creati Gothorum finibus advenerunt.

After a short interval, as Orosius relates, the people of the Huns, more dreadful than any savagery, blazed up against the Goths.

For we learn, as old tradition tells, that they arose in this way.

Filimer, king of the Goths and son of Gadaric the Great, who after the departure from the island of Scandza already held the rule of the Getae in fifth place, and who, as we said above, entered the lands of Scythia with his people,

found among his people certain sorceresses, whom he himself called Haliurunnae in the speech of his fathers,

and, holding them in suspicion, he drove them out from among his people, and having chased them far from his army he forced them to wander in the wilderness.

When unclean spirits wandering through the wilderness saw them and joined them in intercourse,

they brought forth this most savage race. At first it lived among the marshes, a small, foul and scrawny kind of people, known by no voice other than one that gave the semblance of human speech.

Created from such stock, the Huns came to the borders of the Goths.

[16] Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 121–122, p. 85

Jordanes, Getica 183: Attila and the sword of Mars

Qui quamvis huius esset naturae, ut semper magna confideret, addebat ei tamen confidentia gladius Martis inventus, sacer apud Scytharum reges semper habitus,

quem Priscus istoricus tali refert occasione detectum.

Cum pastor, inquiens, quidam gregis unam boculam conspiceret claudicantem nec causam tanti vulneris inveniret, sollicitus vestigia cruoris insequitur

tandemque venit ad gladium, quem depascens herbas incauta calcaverat,

effossumque protinus ad Attilam defert.

Quo ille munere gratulatus, ut erat magnanimis, arbitratur se mundi totius principem constitutum et per Martis gladium potestatem sibi concessam esse bellorum.

Although he was of such a nature that he always trusted in great things, his confidence was increased by the finding of the sword of Mars, always held sacred among the kings of the Scythians,

which the historian Priscus tells was discovered on the following occasion.

When a shepherd, he says, saw one heifer of his flock limping and could not find the cause of so great a wound, he anxiously followed the traces of blood

and at last came to a sword, which the heifer, grazing, had trodden on unawares,

and he dug it up and at once brought it to Attila.

Pleased with this gift, and being high-minded, he judged that he was set up as prince of the whole world and that through the sword of Mars power over wars had been granted to him.

[39] Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 183, p. 102–103

Jordanes, Getica 254 to 255: the death of Attila and the mourning for him

Qui, ut Priscus istoricus refert, exitus sui tempore puellam Ildico nomine decoram valde sibi in matrimonio post innumerabiles uxores, ut mos erat gentis illius, socians

eiusque in nuptiis hilaritate nimia resolutus, vino somnoque gravatus resupinus iaceret,

redundans sanguis, qui ei solite de naribus effluebat, dum consuetis meatibus impeditur, itinere ferali faucibus illapsus extinxit.

Ita glorioso per bella regi temulentia pudendos exitos dedit.

Sequenti vero luce cum magna pars diei fuisset exempta, ministri regii triste aliquid suspicantes post clamores maximos fores effringunt

inveniuntque Attilae sine ullo vulnere necem sanguinis effusione peractam puellamque demisso vultu sub velamine lacrimantem.

Tunc, ut gentis illius mos est, crinium parte truncata informes facies cavis turpavere vulneribus,

ut proeliator eximius non femineis lamentationibus et lacrimis, sed sanguine lugeretur virile.

He, as the historian Priscus relates, at the time of his end took in marriage a very beautiful girl named Ildico, after countless wives, as was the custom of that people,

and, loosened by excessive merriment at her wedding and weighed down with wine and sleep, he lay on his back,

the surging blood, which usually flowed from his nose, was blocked in its accustomed channels, slipped by a deadly path into his throat and killed him.

Thus drunkenness gave a shameful end to a king glorious in wars.

On the following day, when a great part of the day had passed, the king's servants, suspecting something grievous, broke down the doors after loud shouting

and found Attila dead without any wound, his death brought about by an outpouring of blood, and the girl weeping with lowered face beneath her veil.

Then, as is the custom of that people, they cut off part of their hair and disfigured their faces with deep wounds,

so that the outstanding warrior would be mourned not with womanish wailing and tears but with the blood of men.

[40] Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 254–255, p. 123–124

Jordanes, Getica 256 to 257: the funeral song for Attila

Cuius manes quibus a sua gente honoratae sunt, pauca de multis dicere non omittamus.

In mediis si quidem campis et intra tenturia sirica cadavere conlocato spectaculum admirandum et sollemniter exhibetur.

Nam de tota gente Hunnorum lectissimi equites in eo loco, quo erat positus, in modum circensium cursibus ambientes, facta eius cantu funereo tali ordine referebant.

Praecipuus Hunnorum rex Attila, patre genitus Mundzuco, fortissimarum gentium dominus,

qui inaudita ante se potentia solus Scythica et Germanica regna possedit nec non utraque Romani urbis imperia captis civitatibus terruit

et, ne praedae reliqua subderentur, placatus praecibus annuum vectigal accepit:

cumque haec omnia proventu felicitatis egerit, non vulnere hostium, non fraude suorum, sed gente incolume inter gaudia laetus sine sensu doloris occubuit.

Quis ergo hunc exitum putet, quem nullus aestimat vindicandum?

Let us not fail to say a few things out of many about how his shade was honoured by his own people.

For in the middle of the plains, with the body laid out inside silken tents, a spectacle to be wondered at is solemnly staged.

For the choicest horsemen of the whole people of the Huns, riding round the place where he lay in circuits like those of the circus, recounted his deeds in a funeral song in this order.

Attila, foremost king of the Huns, begotten by his father Mundzuc, lord of the bravest peoples,

who with a power unheard of before him alone possessed the Scythian and Germanic realms and also terrified both empires of the Roman world by capturing cities,

and, so that the rest should not be given over to plunder, he was appeased by entreaties and accepted an annual tribute.

And when he had done all this by the course of good fortune, he fell not by a wound from enemies, not by the treachery of his own men, but with his people unharmed, amid joys, cheerful, without feeling of pain.

Who, then, could think this an end, when no one considers that it needs to be avenged?

[41] Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 256–257, p. 124

Jordanes, Getica 258: the strava and the burial of Attila

Postquam talibus lamentis est defletus, stravam super tumulum eius quam appellant ipsi ingenti commessatione concelebrant,

et contraria invicem sibi copulantes luctu funereo mixto gaudio explicabant,

noctuque secreto cadaver terra reconditum copercula primum auro, secundum argento, tertium ferri rigore communiunt,

significantes tali argumento potentissimo regi omnia convenisse: ferrum, quod gentes edomuit, aurum et argentum, quod ornatum rei publicae utriusque acceperit.

Addunt arma hostium caedibus adquisita, faleras vario gemmarum fulgore praetiosas et diversi generis insignia, quibus colitur aulicum decus.

Et, ut tantis divitiis humana curiositas arceretur, operi deputatos detestabili mercede trucidarunt, emersitque momentanea mors sepelientibus cum sepulto.

After he had been mourned with such laments, they celebrated over his tomb with great feasting what they themselves call a strava,

and, joining opposites with one another, they expressed funeral grief mixed with joy,

and by night, in secret, when the body had been buried in the earth, they fitted it with coverings, the first of gold, the second of silver, the third of hard iron,

showing by such a sign that everything had suited the most powerful king: iron, because he subdued the nations, gold and silver, because he received the adornment of both commonwealths.

They add arms won by slaughtering enemies, trappings precious with the varied gleam of gems, and insignia of many kinds by which the splendour of a court is honoured.

And so that human curiosity should be kept from such wealth, they killed those assigned to the work, for a hateful wage, and sudden death came to those who buried him together with the one buried.

[42] Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 258, p. 124–125

References

  1. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 12–13
  2. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 1, p. 51
  3. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 14–15, 31
  4. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 265–266, p. 127
  5. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 316, p. 142
  6. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 3–4
  7. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 5
  8. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 5–6
  9. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 6–10
  10. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 11–12
  11. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 10–11
  12. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 1–3, p. 51
  13. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 14
  14. ^ a b c Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 16
  15. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 16–17
  16. ^ a b Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 121–122, p. 85
  17. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 123–125, p. 85–86
  18. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 126, p. 86
  19. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 163
  20. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 127, p. 87
  21. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 130, p. 87
  22. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 178, p. 101
  23. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 180–183, p. 101–103
  24. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 184–228, 254–258, p. 103–115, 123–125
  25. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 259–263, p. 125–126
  26. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 266–273, p. 127–130
  27. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 269, p. 128
  28. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 36, p. 60
  29. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 37, p. 60
  30. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 123, 178, 183, 222, 254, 255
  31. ^ a b c d Mierow 1915, p. 31
  32. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 121, p. 85
  33. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 34, 163
  34. ^ Mierow 1915, p. 14–15
  35. ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 17
  36. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 166, 176, p. 97, 100
  37. ^ Jordanes
  38. ^ a b Mierow 1915
  39. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 183, p. 102–103
  40. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 254–255, p. 123–124
  41. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 256–257, p. 124
  42. ^ Jordanes; Mierow 1915, § 258, p. 124–125

Sources

Literature

  • Charles Christopher Mierow, The Gothic History of Jordanes in English Version, with an Introduction and a Commentary (1915)
  • Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture (1973)

Articles resting on this source 67

Aetius · Akatziri · Alans · Amilzuri · Angisciri · Aquileia · Ardaric · Attila · Attila's Balkan wars · Balamber · Bardores · Battle of the Catalaunian Plains · Battle of the Nedao · Bittugures · Bleda · Boisci · Bosporos · Cherson · Death of Attila · Dengizich · Ellac · Embassy of Maximinus to Attila · Ernak · Gaiseric · Galla Placidia · Gepids · Göktürk Face-Cutting · Goths · Hermanaric · History of the Turkic peoples · Honoria · Horse harness · Hunnic conquest of the Goths · Hunnic Empire · Hunnic invasion of Gaul, 451 · Hunnic invasion of Italy, 452 · Huns · Ildico · Itimari · Kutrigurs · Marcian · Margus · Mundzuc · Octar · Onogurs · Orestes · Priscus · Riding Round the Dead · Rua · Sabirs · Scapulimancy · Strava · Sword of Mars · The Great Empires of the Steppe · The Hunnic language · Theodoric I · Theodosius II · Thorismund · Tounsoures · Turkic Mythology · Turkic Tribes in Europe · Ultzinzures · Valamir · Valentinian III · Vandals · Wagons of the Steppe Peoples · Western Roman Empire

Related

What links here54

Persons
Aetius · Ardaric · Attila · Balamber · Bigilas · Bleda · Dengizich · Ellac · Ernak · Gaiseric · Galla Placidia · Hermanaric · Honoria · Ildico · Marcian · Mundzuc · Octar · Orestes · Theodoric I · Thorismund · Valamir · Valentinian III
Conflicts
Hunnic conquest of the Goths · Hunnic invasion of Gaul, 451 · Hunnic invasion of Italy, 452
Battles & Events
Battle of the Catalaunian Plains · Battle of the Nedao · Death of Attila · Embassy of Maximinus to Attila
Places
Aquileia · Bosporos · Cherson · Margus
Peoples
Akatziri · Alans · Amilzuri · Angisciri · Bardores · Bittugures · Boisci · Gepids · Goths · Huns · Itimari · Tounsoures · Ultzinzures
Institutions and Titles
Wagons of the Steppe Peoples
Religions
Riding Round the Dead · Strava · Sword of Mars · Turkic Mythology
Languages
The Hunnic language
Sources
Ammianus Marcellinus · Priscus

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Jordanes.” Turkic Atlas, revised 8 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/sources/jordanes/

Last revised: 8 November 2026