The Origin and Deeds of the Goths
The Origin and Deeds of the Goths (Latin: De origine actibusque Getarum), commonly referred to as Getica, was written by Jordanes, probably in Constantinople, and was published in AD 551.
It recounts the origin and the history of the Gothic people as collected mainly from Cassiodorus, who had written a much more extensive work on the Gothic people and their history (the now lost Gothic History). That Jordanes owed almost everything in his recension to the original work of Cassiodorus is scarcely disputed, for in his Preface Jordanes presents his simple plan "to condense in my own style in this small book the twelve volumes of the Senator on the origin and deeds of the Getae from olden time to the present day."
Because Cassiodorus' original version has not survived, Jordanes' work is one of the most important sources for the period of the migration of the European tribes, and the Ostrogoths and Visigoths in particular, from the 3rd century CE. Cassiodorus' work claims to have the Gothic "Folk songs" - the "Carmina Prisca" (Latin) - as a prime source. Recent scholarship regards this as highly questionable. The main purpose of the original work (Cassiodorus's) was to give the gothic ruling class a glorius past - to match the past of the senatorial families of Roman Italy.
The book is important to some medieval historians becuase it mentions the campaign in Gaul of one Riothamus, "King of the Brettones," who is possibly a source of influence for the early stories of King Arthur.
The classic edition is that of Theodor Mommsen (in Monumenta Germ. hist. auct. antiq., v. ii.). The best suviving manuscript was the Heidelberg MS., written in Germany, probably in the 8th century, but this perished in a fire at Mommsen's house. The next of the MSS.in historical value are the Vaticanus Palatinus of the 10th century, and the Valenciennes MS. of the 9th century.
