A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

or JORDA'NES, as he is called, perhaps correctly, in the Codex Ambrosianus, and some other MS. of his works, an historian of more renown than merit, yet of such great importance, that without him our knowledge of the Goths and other barbarians would be very limited. He lived in the time of the emperor Justinian I., or in the sixth century of our era, but we know neither the time of his birth nor that of his death. He was a Goth; his father's name was Alanovamuthis, and his grandlather, Peria, had been notarius, or private and state secretary, to Candax, king of the Alani. Jornandes held the same office at the court of the king of the Alani, adopted the Christian religion, took orders, and was made a bishop in Italy. It is said that he was bishop of Ravenna, but this opinion does not rest on sufficient evidence, and is the less credible as his name does not occur in the "Vitae Episcoporum Ravennatium " by Agnellus, who lived in the middle of the ninth century.

[W.P]