There were several origin stories of the Gothic peoples recorded by Latin and Greek authors in
late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
(roughly 3rd–8th centuries AD), and these are relevant not only to the study of literature, but also by historians seeking evidence of real historical events involving the
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
and other peoples mentioned in these stories.
The earliest accounts of Gothic origins were influenced by biblical commentary, and the assumption that the Goths were related to peoples who had lived earlier in the same region north of the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
and
Lower Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
, especially the
Getae, and
Scythians
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
. The three most important surviving histories of the Goths in late antiquity are those by
Jordanes
Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history ('' Romana'') a ...
,
Isidore of Seville, and
Procopius
Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gen ...
, although Jordanes focused especially on the
Amal clan's supposed history, and Procopius focused less on early origins than the other two.
Jordanes' ''Getica'' has been categorized among the most important examples of the ''
origo gentis
In medieval studies, an ''origo gentis'' is the origin story of a '' gens'' (people). It is not a literary genre of its own, but it is a part of quite extensive works that describe, for example, the history of the respective people. They can also ...
'' (origin of a people)
genre
Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of literature as understood for example by historian
Herwig Wolfram
Herwig Wolfram (born 14 February 1934) is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the . He is a leading member of the Vienna Sc ...
, but whether this category should be described as a genre is questioned, for example by
Walter Goffart
Walter Goffart (born February 22, 1934) is a German-born American historian who specializes in Late Antiquity and the European Middle Ages. He taught for many years in the History Department and Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of Tor ...
, because of doubts that the authors understood themselves to be following a shared traditional model.
Goths as Scythians, Getae and descendants of Magog
The
Goths
The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...
, and other Gothic peoples such as the
Gepids
The Gepids, ( la, Gepidae, Gipedae, grc, Γήπαιδες) were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion ...
, lived north of the Roman empire's frontier on the
Lower Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
in an area which had previously been home to Getae,
Dacians, and
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples of classical antiquity who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th cen ...
, and much earlier by the Scythians. All of the surviving Gothic origins stories included elements which connected the Goths to at least some of these previous inhabitants of "
Scythia
Scythia (Scythian: ; Old Persian: ; Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) or Scythica (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ), also known as Pontic Scythia, was a kingdom created by the Scythians during the 6th to 3rd centuries BC in the Pontic–Caspian steppe.
Hi ...
".
Already in the first half of the third century,
Dexippos, whose history has only survived in fragments, referred to the Goths of his time as Scythians, although from the surviving fragments he did not necessarily intend to assert that all Scythians had common origins.
The first surviving rationales equating Goths with Scythians or Getae were by early Christian scholars,
Ambrose (about 340–397),
Orosius (about 375–420) and
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
(about 347–420). Ambrose equated the Scythians and Goths with the Biblical
Gog and Magog, barbarians who come from the extreme north, where there are islands.
Ambrose, in his ''De Fide'' II.xvi explains that "Gog" the ruler of "Magog" mentioned in the ''
Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Tanakh and one of the major prophetic books, following Isaiah and Jeremiah. According to the book itself, it records six visions of the prophet Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon, during ...
'' represented "the Goths" (''hoc est Gothis''), as the subject of a prophecy in the Bible of an invader from the north, who will come on horseback as a mighty army, and be defeated. Gog and Magog were also associated with islands because God would "send fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles".
According to
Arne S. Christensen, one precursor of Ambrose's equation of the Goths with the Biblical Gog and Magog was
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...
(died about 100), who equated the Scythians with the descendants of biblical
Magog, who he understood as a person, not a country. This was based upon a passage in the ''
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
''. A connection between this ancestral ''Genesis'' Magog, and the prophesied Gog from ''Ezekiel'', who ruled a country named Magog, or "Gog and Magog" from the similar 1st century AD ''
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...
'' prophecy, was made explicit in Jerome. This paved the way for other writers to connect the Goths, as Scythians, to the ancestry of the Scythians as described by Josephus, although Jerome himself did not do this.
Orosius is among early writers to equate the Goths with Scythians, listing them along with the
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
and
Alans
The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern historians have connected the A ...
as "Scythians" of his time.
Jerome, like his contemporary Orosius, equated the Goths to the earlier Getae, but did not equate them to Gog and Magog. Jerome stated that scholars before him and Orosius had made this equation. Saint Jerome however specifically rejected this equation of the Goths with Gog and Magog. (Nevertheless, Herwig Wolfram believes that with this assertion "he probably invented the identification of the Goths as Getae".) Their contemporary,
Saint Augustine
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Afr ...
, argued that Gog and Magog should not be read as Ambrose had, as Goths, but seen as representing peoples all over the world, not any single specific barbarian people.
Another late 4th century writer who routinely called the Goths "Getae" was the poet
Claudian (died about 404).
Much later, Isidore of Seville (died 636), in his own ''History of the Goths'', suggested that the connection of the Goths to Magog in ''Ezekiel'' must have been assumed by previous authors because of the similarity in sound between "Gog" and "Goth". Similarly, he noted that the word for the Scythians (''Skuthoi'' in transliterated Greek), was itself also similar to the name of the Goths (''Guthoi''). Isidore did not see these similarities of names as false leads, believing that these indicated the true origins of the Goths.
Procopius
Procopius called the Goths "Getae" without giving any particular justification for this. More unusually, he avoided using the term Scythian for the Goths, which he used as a more general term. Instead he asserted that the Gothic peoples, among whom he listed not only the Goths but also the
Gepids
The Gepids, ( la, Gepidae, Gipedae, grc, Γήπαιδες) were an East Germanic tribe who lived in the area of modern Romania, Hungary and Serbia, roughly between the Tisza, Sava and Carpathian Mountains. They were said to share the religion ...
and
Vandals
The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century.
The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...
, had once been known to writers as the
Sarmatians
The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic peoples of classical antiquity who dominated the Pontic steppe from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th cen ...
, and also, further back, as the less well-known
Melanchlaeni or "black cloaks".
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...
had specifically described these latter as a non-Scythian people, who had once lived very distant from the Greeks, beyond the Scythians of his time. Procopius specified that some people called the Gothic peoples "Getan people". They were all similar-looking,
Arian by religion (in the 6th century) and spoke a language known to Procopius as
Gothic.
Jordanes
Similar to older accounts, Jordanes' ''Getica'' equates the Goths to Getae, and believed they were descended from the Scythians, with ancient origins in the far north. For his equation of the Getae and the Goths, even in the title of his work, he explicitly cited the authority of Orosius. Jordanes had read Josephus and apparently saw his account of the origins of the Scythians as descendants of the Biblical Magog in ''Genesis'' as compatible with his own account, though he questioned why Josephus had not specifically named the Goths and discussed their beginnings.
Differently to other Gothic origins stories however, Jordanes named at least two specific northern places where the ancestors of the Goths had lived more than a thousand years earlier.
Scholars are uncertain about the precise origins of the various details of Jordanes' migration stories, and debate the extent to which real Gothic legends or the study of older Christian and pagan authors may have influenced it. Jordanes himself, in the prefaces to his ''Romana'' and ''Getica'', mentions that his project of writing the ''Getica'' involved first reading the now lost, and much larger (12 volume) history of the Goths written by
Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' ...
, in Italy. Indeed, he had been asked by a friend to abridge it. He had access to it for three days, he said.
In the time of Jordanes, the Goths lived mainly in or near the Roman empire itself. He reported several ancestral homelands in his migration narrative which stretched over thousands of years.
Scandza
The opening sections of the ''Getica'' form a large digression about the large northern island in the
Baltic sea
The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain.
The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...
known as "
Scandza
Scandza was described as a "great island" by Gothic-Byzantine historian Jordanes in his work ''Getica''. The island was located in the Arctic regions of the sea that surrounded the world. The location is usually identified with Scandinavia.
Jor ...
" to Jordanes. He is understood by modern scholars to have intended the peninsula of
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...
. According to Jordanes (IV 25, XVII 94), the Goths left this island in two boats, along with one boat of Gepids, 2030 years before 540, or 1490 BCE.
Jordanes, apparently influenced by the earlier Bible-influenced stories of Scythian origins, created an influential narrative in this section whereby Scandza was a "womb of nations", claiming that many nations had spread from there in large numbers. He also gives a remarkable list of peoples who Jordanes believed lived in Scandza during his own time. It has been suggested that he (like his contemporary Procopius, and the earlier Cassiodorus) had an interest in collecting information about the northern regions.
The name "Scandza" can be found in earlier Greek geographers such as
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
and
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
, and Jordanes explicitly mentions having used such sources. This raises the possibility that Jordanes used a name from his reading of Roman and Greek authors, in order to add detail to an older idea of a northern origin for the Scythians.
Vistula region
After Scandza, Jordanes says the Goths lived in an area near the
Vistula
The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland.
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...
river. Jordanes wrote that in 1490 BC, they were led by a king named Berig, in two ships, and settled at a place Jordanes believed was called
Gothiscandza According to a tale related by Jordanes in his ''Getica'', Gothiscandza was the first settlement area of the Goths after their migration from Scandza during the first half of the 1st century CE. He claimed that the name was still in use in his own ...
in his time. The Gepids, who travelled behind them in another ship, settled on an island in the Vistula previously called Spesis, and later called Gepedoius (XVII 96). According to Jordanes, the Goths lived there for the reigns of about 5 kings, starting in about 1490 BC — a period long before Jordanes, and long before the Roman empire existed.
According to Jordanes, the Goths then moved to takeover the coastal region where the
Ulmerugi lived. Modern historians have suggested that this name may refer to the Rugii, who had been reported by the Roman author
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
as living in this area about 100 AD. One of the neighbours of these people who Tacitus mentions were the
Gutones
The Gutones (also spelled Guthones, Gotones etc) were a Germanic people who were reported by Roman era writers in the 1st and 2nd centuries to have lived in what is now Poland. The most accurate description of their location, by the geographer Ptol ...
, whose name is apparently quite similar to some forms of the Goth's own name in their own language. Ptolemy also mentioned these Gutones and placed them close to the Vistula. This again raises the question of whether Jordanes (or a source of his) had developed this part of the narrative based on old Roman works.
In the case of the Gutones mentioned by
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
,
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars.
The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...
and Ptolemy, while Jordanes may well have been adapting the works of older authors, and using an unbelievable chronology, many historians believe that there was a real connection between them and the Goths. Not only the name, but also archaeological evidence favours the idea. In particular, there are similarities between the Vistula
Wielbark culture
The Wielbark culture (german: Wielbark-Willenberg-Kultur; pl, Kultura wielbarska) or East Pomeranian-Mazovian is an Iron Age archaeological complex which flourished on the territory of today's Poland from the 1st century AD to the 5th century AD. ...
, which is believed to have included the Gutones, and the Ukrainian
Chernyakhov culture
The Chernyakhov culture, Cherniakhiv culture or Sântana de Mureș—Chernyakhov culture was an archaeological culture that flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what is now Ukraine, Rom ...
, which is believed to have included the Gothic peoples ancestral to those known to Jordanes and his contemporaries.
Among scholars who accept a connection between the Vistula Gutones and the Scythia Goths, there are a wide range of opinions about the details. In particular, there are doubts about whether a large number of people moved, and if so, whether they stayed together as one continuous ethnic group.
Jordanes appears to have also made use of contemporary sources familiar with northern geography. For example, he says that Gothiscandza still has the same name (IV 25), and the Gepid island of Spesis was in his own time inhabited by the otherwise unknown Vividarii, who he described as a mix of different peoples (XVII 96).
Scythia and the Lower Danube
Prior to their entanglements with Rome, Jordanes (V 38) describes the Goths as having moved around between different parts of Scythia and
Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...
, all north of the Danube and Black Sea.
*The first,
Oium
Oium was a name for Scythia, or a fertile part of it, roughly in modern Ukraine, where the Goths, under a legendary King Filimer, settled after leaving Gothiscandza, according to the ''Getica'' by Jordanes, written around 551.
It is generall ...
, was a fertile area of Scythia where the Goths fought and defeated the previous inhabitants of that area, the
Spali The Spali ( la, Spalaei, Spali, Palaei, Pali) was an ancient tribe mentioned in classical geography that inhabited the south of Russia.
Pliny ( 77–79) enumerated a group of tribes through which the Don River (''Tanais'') crossed, in which the Sp ...
(a people apparently mentioned by
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
as living on or near the
Don river
The Don ( rus, Дон, p=don) is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire.
Its ...
). Jordanes believed that the Goths had first arrived with an army and families in one specific fertile part of Scythia, as one people. Specifically, Jordanes says that "Oium" was their name for Scythia, or this fertile part of it.
*Second, they hastened to an area near the
Sea of Azov ("Lake Maeotis"). Jordanes specifies that after defeating the Spali, the Goths hastened to their new homeland in Scythia. Jordanes mentions that this part of his narrative agrees with the work of a lost chronicler of the Goths called Ablabius, and (in a well-known comment) "the ancient Gothic songs, which are almost historical in nature". Jordanes (V) describes this region as being a bend of Sea of Azov, between the rivers Dniepr and Don. During their long stay here, these Scythian Goths supposedly battled against Egyptian and Middle Eastern empires, creating the
Median empire, some Goths became the ancestors of the
Parthia
Parthia ( peo, 𐎱𐎼𐎰𐎺 ''Parθava''; xpr, 𐭐𐭓𐭕𐭅 ''Parθaw''; pal, 𐭯𐭫𐭮𐭥𐭡𐭥 ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Med ...
ns (V-VI). Some of the Gothic women, when carried away, became the
Amazons and held the kingdoms of Asia for almost a year before returning to the Goths (VII).
*Third, for a very long period they lived in
Moesia,
Thrace
Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...
and
Dacia
Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It ...
, areas found near the Lower Danube and Balkans, and bordering the Graeco-Roman world. In this period, Jordanes equates the Goths with historical
Dacians and
Getae, long before the time of Jordanes. He reports for example (IX) that in the time of the
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...
, the Goths (now Getae) ruled a kingdom at
Moesia. The 5th century BC
Thracian
The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...
king
Sitalces is also described as a Gothic king (X 66). Jordanes also emphasizes (V.39) several important kings who made the Goths wiser: Zeuta,
Dicineus, and
Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis ( grc-gre, Ζάλμοξις) also known as Salmoxis (Σάλμοξις), Zalmoxes (Ζάλμοξες), Zamolxis (Ζάμολξις), Samolxis (Σάμολξις), Zamolxes (Ζάμολξες), or Zamolxe (Ζάμολξε) is a divinity of the ...
. Zalmoxis was reported as a
Getic
The Getae ( ) or Gets ( ; grc, Γέται, singular ) were a Thracian-related tribe that once inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania. Both the singular form ''Get'' an ...
deity by
Herodotus
Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer
A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...
already in the 5th century BC. Strabo had believed that Zalmoxis was a slave of
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His politi ...
, and mentioned Decaeneus as a
Dacian disciple living in the much later time of the Dacian king
Burebista
Burebista ( grc, Βυρεβίστας, Βοιρεβίστας) was the king of the Getae and Dacian tribes from 82/61BC to 45/44BC. He was the first king who successfully unified the tribes of the Dacian kingdom, which comprised the area loca ...
, and Jordanes makes it clear he means the same person, despite the impossible chronology. Jordanes even specified that the Gothic order of "capillati" or long-haired men, was instituted by this Dicineus, and that the laws he made for the Goths were still in existence in his time.
[. Compare Strabo, ''Geography'']
7.3.5
and ''Getica'' XI.
*Finally, Jordanes says the Goths moved back east to the region north of the Black Sea ("Pontus"). This is an area where Roman and Greek sources report them in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
The chronology of Jordanes is not considered realistic.
Notes
Bibliography
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{{Germanic peoples
Goths
History of literature
Folklore
Historiography
Origin hypotheses of ethnic groups
6th-century Latin writers
6th-century Byzantine writers