The Romana is a Latin book written by Jordanes

Jordanes

Jordanes, also written Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat, who turned his hand to history later in life....

 in the 6th century, being a short compendium of the most remarkable events from the creation down to the victory obtained by Narses

Narses

Narses was, with Belisarius, one of the great generals in the service of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I during the "Reconquest" that took place during Justinian's reign....

, in AD 552, over king Teia

Teia

Teia , also known as Teja, Theia, Thila, Thela, Teias, was the last Ostrogothic king in Italy.Apparently a military officer serving under Totila, Teia was chosen as successor and raised over a shield after Totila was slain in the Battle of Taginae in July 552...

. The work has been published under many different titles: De Regnorum ac Temporum Successione, Liber de origine mundi et actibus Romanorum ceterarumque gentium or De gestis Romanorum.

It is an epitome of epitomes that was begun before, but published after, the Getica, covering the history of the world from the Creation, mainly based on Jerome

Jerome

Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...

, with material from Florus

Florus

Florus, Roman historian, lived in the time of Trajan and Hadrian.He compiled, chiefly from Livy, a brief sketch of the history of Rome from the foundation of the city to the closing of the temple of Janus by Augustus . The work, which is called Epitome de T...

, and for the last part from Marcellinus Comes

Marcellinus Comes

Marcellinus Comes was a Latin chronicler of the Eastern Roman Empire. An Illyrian by birth, he spent most of his life at the court of Constantinople, which is the focus of his surviving work.-Works:...

, the continuator

Continuator

A continuator, in literature, is a writer who creates a new work based on someone else's prior text, such as a novel or novel fragment. The new work may complete the older work , or may try to serve as a sequel or prequel to the older work A continuator, in literature, is a writer who creates a new...

 of Jerome; it is of some value for the century 450–550, when Jordanes is dealing with recent history, and also for some accounts of several barbarous nations of the north, and the countries which they inhabited. It was written in 551 or 552 at Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 for a man addressed as "nobilissime frater Vigilii", unlikely to be Pope Vigilius

Pope Vigilius

Pope Vigilius reigned as pope from 537 to 555, is considered the first pope of the Byzantine Papacy.-Early life:He belonged to a aristocratic Roman family; his father Johannes is identified as a consul in the Liber pontificalis, having received that title from the emperor...

.

Its Editio princeps

Editio princeps

In classical scholarship, editio princeps is a term of art. It means, roughly, the first printed edition of a work that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand....

, with the Getica and Paul the Deacon

Paul the Deacon

Paul the Deacon , also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefred, Barnefridus and Cassinensis, , was a Benedictine monk and historian of the Lombards.-Life:...

, was printed in Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

 by Konrad Peutinger

Konrad Peutinger

Conrad Peutinger was a German humanist diplomat, politician, and economist, who was educated at Bologna and Padua. Known as a notorious antiquarian, he collected, with the help of Marcus Welser and his wife Margareta Welser, one of the largest private libraries north of the...

 in 1515. The earliest translations are a French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 translation by Drouet de Maupertuy, and one in Swedish

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...

 by J. T. Peringskiold in 1719. The classical edition remains that by Theodor Mommsen

Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist, and writer generally regarded as the greatest classicist of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research...

 in 1882, published with the Getica in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica

Monumenta Germaniae Historica

The Monumenta Germaniae Historica is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published sources for the study of German history from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500.The society sponsoring the series was established by the Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom...

. It was Mommsen who first gave Jordanes' works the names by which they are mostly known, Romana and Getica.

External links

• Jordanes' Romana (excerpts)