JORDANES (Jordanes, Jornandes). — A Gothic historian who lived around the middle of the 6th century.
He wrote in late Latin, in 551, two chronicles: a Roman history, *De summa temporum vel origine actibusque gentis Romanorum*, of little value, which is largely an excerpt from Florus; and a history of the Goths, *De origine actibusque Getarum*, of no small importance for the history of the Gothic people in Italy. J. expresses his attachment to the last scion of the old royal line of the Amali and favors the peaceful integration of the Goths into the Roman Empire.
According to Th. Mommsen, J. would have been a monk who wrote in Moesia or Thrace; G. Grimm, S. Cassel, and G. Wattenbach instead identify him with the Catholic bishop J. of Crotone, in southern Italy, who would have written his work in Constantinople or Chalcedon, in the circle of Pope Vigilius, to whom he dedicated his history.