[1] His Christian name of Benjamin was usually abbreviated by himself
and his contemporaries; and thus, in accordance with his famous
epitaph, it will always continue to be abbreviated.
[2] With Inigo Jones, however, in quarrelling with whom, as Howell
reminds Jonson, the poet was virtually quarrelling with his bread and
butter, he seems to have found it impossible to live permanently at
peace; his satirical _Expostulation_ against the architect was
published as late as 1635. Chapman's satire against his old
associate, perhaps due to this quarrel, was left unfinished and
unpublished.
[3] Of _The Fall of Mortimer_ Jonson left only a few lines behind
him; but, as he also left the argument of the play, factious
ingenuity contrived to furbish up the relic into a libel against
Queen Caroline and Sir Robert Walpole in 1731, and to revive the
contrivance by way of an insult to the princess dowager of Wales and
Lord Bute in 1762.
JOPLIN, a city of Jasper county, Missouri, U.S.A., on Joplin creek,
about 140 m. S. of Kansas City. Pop. (1890), 9943; (1900), 26,023, of
whom 893 were foreign-born and 773 were negroes; (1910 census) 32,073.
It is served by the Missouri Pacific, the St Louis & San Francisco, the
Missouri, Kansas & Texas, and the Kansas City Southern railways, and by
interurban electric lines. The city has a fine court-house, a United
States government building, a Carnegie library and a large auditorium.
Joplin is the trade centre of a rich agricultural and fruit-growing
district, but its growth has been chiefly due to its situation in one of
the most productive zinc and lead regions in the country, for which it
is the commercial centre. In 1906 the value of zinc-ore shipments from
this Missouri-Kansas (or Joplin) district was $12,074,105, and of
shipments of lead ore, $3,048,558. The value of Joplin's factory product
in 1905 was $3,006,203, an increase of 29.3% since 1900. Natural gas,
piped from the Kansas fields, is used for light and power, and
electricity for commercial lighting and power is derived from plants on
Spring River, near Vark, Kansas, and on Shoal creek. The municipality
owns its electric-lighting plant; the water-works are under private
ownership. The first settlement in the neighbourhood was made in 1838.
In 1871 Joplin was laid out and incorporated as a town; in 1872 it and a
rival town on the other side of Joplin creek were united under the name
Union City; in 1873 Union City was chartered as a city under the name
Joplin; and in 1888 Joplin was chartered as a city of the third class.
The city derives its name from the creek, which was named in honour of
the Rev. Harris G. Joplin (c. 1810-1847), a native of Tennessee.
JOPPA, less correctly JAFFA (Arab. _Yafa_), a seaport on the coast of
Palestine. It is of great antiquity, being mentioned in the tribute
lists of Tethmosis (Thothmes) III.; but as it never was in the territory
of the pre-exilic Israelites it was to them a place of no importance.
Its ascription to the tribe of Dan (Josh. xix. 46) is purely
theoretical. According to the authors of Chronicles (2 Chron. ii. 16),
Ezra (iii. 7) and Jonah (i. 3) it was a seaport for importation of the
Lebanon timber floated down the coasts or for ships plying even to
distant Tarshish. About 148 B.C. it was captured from the Syrians by
Jonathan Maccabaeus (1 Macc. x. 75) and later it was retaken and
garrisoned by Simon his brother (xii. 33, xiii. 11). It was restored to
the Syrians by Pompey (Jos., _Ant._ xiv. 4, 4) but again given back to
the Jews (ib. xiv. 10, 6) with an exemption from tax. St Peter for a
while lodged at Joppa, where he restored the benevolent widow Tabitha to
life, and had the vision which taught him the universality of the plan
of Christianity.
According to Strabo (xvi. ii.), who makes the strange mistake of saying
that Jerusalem is visible from Joppa, the place was a resort of pirates.
It was destroyed by Vespasian in the Jewish War (68). Tradition connects
the story of Andromeda and the sea-monster with the sea-coast of Joppa,
and in early times her chains were shown as well as the skeleton of the
monster itself (Jos. _Wars_, iii. 9, 3). The site seems to have been
shown even to some medieval pilgrims, and curious traces of it have been
detected in modern Moslem legends.
In the 5th and 11th centuries we hear from time to time of bishops of
Joppa, under the metropolitan of Jerusalem. In 1126 the district was
captured by the knights of St John, but lost to Saladin in 1187. Richard
Coeur de Lion retook it in 1191, but it was finally retaken by Malek el
'Adil in 1196. It languished for a time; in the 16th century it was an
almost uninhabited ruin; but towards the end of the 17th century it
began anew to develop as a seaport. In 1799 it was stormed by Napoleon;
the fortifications were repaired and strengthened by the British.
The modern town of Joppa derives its importance, first, as a seaport for
Jerusalem and the whole of southern Palestine, and secondly as a centre
of the fruit-growing industry. During the latter part of the 19th
century it greatly increased in size. The old city walls have been
entirely removed. Its population is about 35,000 (Moslems 23,000,
Christians 5000, Jews 7000; with the Christians are included the
"Templars," a semi-religious, semi-agricultural German colony of about
320 souls). The town, which rises over a rounded hillock on the coast,
about 100 ft. high, has a very picturesque appearance from the sea. The
harbour (so-called) is one of the worst existing, being simply a natural
breakwater formed by a ledge of reefs, safe enough for small Oriental
craft, but very dangerous for large vessels, which can only make use of
the seaport in calm weather; these never come nearer than about a mile
from the shore. A railway and a bad carriage-road connect Joppa with
Jerusalem. The water of the town is derived from wells, many of which
have a brackish taste. The export trade of the town consists of soap of
olive oil, sesame, barley, water melons, wine and especially oranges
(commonly known as Jaffa oranges), grown in the famous and
ever-increasing gardens that lie north and east of the town. The chief
imports are timber, cotton and other textile goods, tiles, iron, rice,
coffee, sugar and petroleum. The value of the exports in 1900 was
estimated at £264,950, the imports £382,405. Over 10,000 pilgrims,
chiefly Russians, and some three or four thousand tourists land annually
at Joppa. The town is the seat of a kaimakam or lieutenant-governor,
subordinate to the governor of Jerusalem, and contains vice-consulates
of Great Britain, France, Germany, America and other powers. There are
Latin, Greek, Armenian and Coptic monasteries; and hospitals and schools
under British, French and German auspices. (R. A. S. M.)
JORDAENS, JACOB (1593-1678), Flemish painter, was born and died at
Antwerp. He studied, like Rubens, under Adam van Noort, and his marriage
with his master's daughter in 1616, the year after his admission to the
gild of painters, prevented him from visiting Rome. He was forced to
content himself with studying such examples of the Italian masters as he
found at home; but a far more potent influence was exerted upon his
style by Rubens, who employed him sometimes to reproduce small sketches
in large. Jordaens is second to Rubens alone in their special department
of the Flemish school. In both there is the same warmth of colour, truth
to nature, mastery of chiaroscuro and energy of expression; but Jordaens
is wanting in dignity of conception, and is inferior in choice of forms,
in the character of his heads, and in correctness of drawing. Not seldom
he sins against good taste, and in some of his humorous pieces the
coarseness is only atoned for by the animation. Of these last he seems
in some cases to have painted several replicas. He employed his pencil
also in biblical, mythological, historical and allegorical subjects, and
is well-known as a portrait painter. He also etched some plates.
See the elaborate work on the painter, by Max Rooses (1908).
JORDAN, CAMILLE (1771-1821), French politician, was born in Lyons on the
11th of January 1771 of a well-to-do mercantile family. He was educated
in Lyons, and from an early age was imbued with royalist principles. He
actively supported by voice, pen and musket his native town in its
resistance to the Convention; and when Lyons fell, in October 1793,
Jordan fled. From Switzerland he passed in six months to England, where
he formed acquaintances with other French exiles and with prominent
British statesmen, and imbibed a lasting admiration for the English
Constitution. In 1796 he returned to France, and next year he was sent
by Lyons as a deputy to the Council of Five Hundred. There his eloquence
won him consideration. He earnestly supported what he felt to be true
freedom, especially in matters of religious worship, though the
energetic appeal on behalf of church bells in his _Rapport sur la
liberté des cultes_ procured him the sobriquet of Jordan-Cloche.
Proscribed at the _coup d'état_ of the 18th Fructidor (4th of September
1797) he escaped to Basel. Thence he went to Germany, where he met
Goethe. Back again in France by 1800, he boldly published in 1802 his
_Vrai sens du vote national pour le consulat à vie_, in which he exposed
the ambitious schemes of Bonaparte. He was unmolested, however, and
during the First Empire lived in literary retirement at Lyons with his
wife and family, producing for the Lyons academy occasional papers on
the _Influence réciproque de l'éloquence sur la Révolution et de la
Révolution sur l'éloquence_; _Études sur Klopstock_, &c. At the
restoration in 1814 he again emerged into public life. By Louis XVIII.
he was ennobled and named a councillor of state; and from 1816 he sat in
the chamber of deputies as representative of Ain. At first he supported
the ministry, but when they began to show signs of reaction he separated
from them, and gradually came to be at the head of the constitutional
opposition. His speeches in the chamber were always eloquent and
powerful. Though warned by failing health to resign, Camille Jordan
remained at his post till his death at Paris, on the 19th of May 1821.
To his pen we owe _Lettre à M. Lamourette_ (1791); _Histoire de la
conversion d'une dame Parisienne_ (1792); _La Loi et la religion
vengées_ (1792); _Adresse à ses commettants sur la révolution du 4
Septembre 1797_ (1797); _Sur les troubles de Lyon_ (1818); _La Session
de 1817_ (1818). His _Discours_ were collected in 1818. The "Fragments
choisis," and translations from the German, were published in
_L'Abeille française_. Besides the various histories of the time, see
further details vol. x. of the _Revue encyclopédique_; a paper on
Jordan and Madame de Staël, by C. A. Sainte-Beuve, in the _Revue des
deux mondes_ for March 1868 and R. Boubée, "Camille Jordan à Weimar,"
in the _Correspondant_ (1901), ccv. 718-738 and 948-970.
JORDAN, DOROTHEA (1762-1816), Irish actress, was born near Waterford,
Ireland, in 1762. Her mother, Grace Phillips, at one time known as Mrs
Frances, was a Dublin actress. Her father, whose name was Bland, was
according to one account an army captain, but more probably a stage
hand. Dorothy Jordan made her first appearance on the stage in 1777 in
Dublin as Phoebe in _As You Like It_. After acting elsewhere in Ireland
she appeared in 1782 at Leeds, and subsequently at other Yorkshire
towns, in a variety of parts, including Lady Teazle. It was at this time
that she began calling herself Mrs Jordan. In 1785 she made her first
London appearance at Drury Lane as Peggy in _A Country Girl_. Before the
end of her first season she had become an established public favourite,
her acting in comedy being declared second only to that of Kitty Clive.
Her engagement at Drury Lane lasted till 1809, and she played a large
variety of parts. But gradually it came to be recognized that her
special talent lay in comedy, her Lady Teazle, Rosalind and Imogen being
specially liked, and such "breeches" parts as William in _Rosina_.
During the rebuilding of Drury Lane she played at the Haymarket; she
transferred her services in 1811 to Covent Garden. Here, in 1814, she
made her last appearance on the London stage, and the following year, at
Margate, retired altogether. Mrs Jordan's private life was one of the
scandals of the period. She had a daughter by her first manager, in
Ireland, and four children by Sir Richard Ford, whose name she bore for
some years. In 1790 she became the mistress of the duke of Clarence
(afterwards William IV.), and bore him ten children, who were ennobled
under the name of Fitz Clarence, the eldest being created earl of
Munster. In 1811 they separated by mutual consent, Mrs Jordan being
granted a liberal allowance. In 1815 she went abroad. According to one
story she was in danger of imprisonment for debt. If so, the debt must
have been incurred on behalf of others--probably her relations, who
appear to have been continually borrowing from her--for her own personal
debts were very much more than covered by her savings. She is generally
understood to have died at St Cloud, near Paris, on the 3rd of July
1816, but the story that under an assumed name she lived for seven years
after that date in England finds some credence.
See James Boaden, _Life of Mrs Jordan_ (1831); _The Great
Illegitimates_ (1830); John Genest, _Account of the Stage_; Tate
Wilkinson, _The Wandering Patentee; Memoirs and Amorous Adventures by
Sea and Land of King William IV._ (1830); _The Georgian Era_ (1838).
JORDAN, THOMAS (1612?-1685), English poet and pamphleteer, was born in
London and started life as an actor at the Red Bull theatre in
Clerkenwell. He published in 1637 his first volume of poems, entitled
_Poeticall Varieties_, and in the same year appeared _A Pill to Purge
Melancholy_. In 1639 he recited one of his poems before King Charles I.,
and from this time forward Jordan's output in verse and prose was
continuous and prolific. He freely borrowed from other authors, and
frequently re-issued his own writings under new names. During the
troubles between the king and the parliament he wrote a number of
Royalist pamphlets, the first of which, _A Medicine for the Times, or an
Antidote against Faction_, appeared in 1641. Dedications, occasional
verses, prologues and epilogues to plays poured from his pen. Many
volumes of his poems bear no date, and they were probably written during
the Commonwealth. At the Restoration he eulogized Monk, produced a
masque at the entertainment of the general in the city of London and
wrote pamphlets in his support. He then for some years devoted his chief
attention to writing plays, in at least one of which, _Money is an Ass_,
he himself played a part when it was produced in 1668. In 1671 he was
appointed laureate to the city of London; from this date till his death
in 1685 he annually composed a panegyric on the lord mayor, and arranged
the pageantry of the lord mayor's shows, which he celebrated in verse
under such titles as _London Triumphant, or the City in Jollity and
Splendour_ (1672), or _London in Luster, Projecting many Bright Beams of
Triumph_ (1679). Many volumes of these curious productions are preserved
in the British Museum.
In addition to his numerous printed works, of which perhaps _A Royal
Arbour of Loyall Poesie_ (1664) and _A Nursery of Novelties in Variety
of Poetry_ are most deserving of mention, several volumes of his poems
exist in manuscript. W. C. Hazlitt and other 19th-century critics
found more merit in Jordan's writings than was allowed by his
contemporaries, who for the most part scornfully referred to his
voluminous productions as commonplace and dull.
See Gerard Langbaine, _Account of the English Dramatic Poets_ (1691);
David Erskine Baker, _Biographia Dramatica_ (4 vols., 1812); W. C.
Hazlitt, _Handbook to the Popular, Poetical and Dramatic Literature of
Great Britain_ (1867); F. W. Fairholt, _Lord Mayors Pageants_ (Percy
Society, 1843), containing a memoir of Thomas Jordan; John Gough
Nichols, _London Pageants_ (1831).
JORDAN, WILHELM (1819-1904), German poet and novelist, was born at
Insterburg in East Prussia on the 8th of February 1819. He studied,
first theology and then philosophy and natural science, at the
universities of Konigsberg and Berlin. He settled in Leipzig as a
journalist; but the democratic views expressed in some essays and the
volumes of poems _Glocke und Kanone_ (1481) and _Irdische Phantasien_
(1842) led to his expulsion from Saxony in 1846. He next engaged in
literary and tutorial work in Bremen, and on the outbreak of the
revolution, in February 1848, was sent to Paris, as correspondent of the
_Bremer Zeitung_. He almost immediately, however, returned to Germany
and, throwing himself into the political fray in Berlin, was elected
member for Freienwalde, in the first German parliament at
Frankfort-on-Main. For a short while he sided with the Left, but soon
joined the party of von Gagern. On a vote having been passed for the
establishment of a German navy, he was appointed secretary of the
committee to deal with the whole question, and was subsequently made
ministerial councillor (_Ministerialrat_) in the naval department of the
government. The naval project was abandoned, Jordan was pensioned and
afterwards resided at Frankfort-on-Main until his death on the 25th of
June 1904, devoting himself to literary work, acting as his own
publisher, and producing numerous poems, novels, dramas and
translations.
Among his best known works are: _Demiurgos_ (3 vols., 1852-1854), a
"Mysterium," in which he attempted to deal with the problems of human
existence, but the work found little favour; _Nibelunge_, an epic poem
in alliterative verse, in two parts, (1) _Sigfnedsage_ (1867-1868;
13th ed. 1889) and (2) _Hildebrants Heimkehr_ (1874; 10th ed.
1892)--in the first part he is regarded as having been remarkably
successful; a tragedy, _Die Wittwe des Agis_ (1858); the comedies,
_Die Liebesleugner_ (1855) and _Durchs Ohr_ (1870; 6th ed. 1885); and
the novels _Die Sebalds_ (1885) and _Zwei Wiegen_ (1887). Jordan also
published numerous translations, notably _Homers Odyssee_ (1876; 2nd
ed. 1889) and _Homers Ilias_ (1881; 2nd ed. 1894); _Die Edda_ (1889).
He was also distinguished as a reciter, and on a visit to the United
States in 1871 read extracts from his works before large audiences.
JORDAN (the down-comer; Arab. _esh-Sheri'a_, the watering-place), the
only river of Palestine and one of the most remarkable in the world. It
flows from north to south in a deep trough-like valley, the Aulon of the
Greeks and Ghor of the Arabs, which is usually believed to follow the
line of a fault or fracture of the earth's crust. Most geologists hold
that the valley is part of an old sea-bed, traces of which remain in
numerous shingle-banks and beach-levels. This, they say, once extended
to the Red Sea and even over N.E. Africa. Shrinkage caused the pelagic
limestone bottom to be upheaved in two ridges, between which occurred a
long fracture, which can now be traced from Coelesyria down the Wadi
Araba to the Gulf of Akaba. The Jordan valley in its lower part keeps
about the old level of the sea-bottom and is therefore a remnant of the
Miocene world. This theory, however, is not universally accepted, some
authorities preferring to assume a succession of more strictly local
elevations and depressions, connected with the recent volcanic activity
of the Jaulan and Lija districts on the east bank, which brought the
contours finally to their actual form. In any case the number of
distinct sea-beaches seems to imply a succession of convulsive changes,
more recent than the great Miocene upheaval, which are responsible for
the shrinkage of the water into the three isolated pans now found. For
more than two-thirds of its course the Jordan lies below the level of
the sea. It has never been navigable, no important town has ever been
built on its banks, and it runs into an inland sea which has no port and
is destitute of aquatic life. Throughout history it has exerted a
separatist influence, roughly dividing the settled from the nomadic
populations; and the crossing of Jordan, one way or the other, was
always an event in the history of Israel. In Hebrew times its valley was
regarded as a "wilderness" and, except in the Roman era, seems always to
have been as sparsely inhabited as now. From its sources to the Dead Sea
it rushes down a continuous inclined plane, broken here and there by
rapids and small falls; between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea its
sinuosity is so great that in a direct distance of 65 m. it traverses at
least 200 m. The mean fall is about 9 ft. in the mile. The Jordan has
two great sources, one in Tell el-Kadi (Dan) whence springs the Nahr
Leddan, a stream 12 ft. broad at its birth; the other at Banias (anc.
Paneas, Caesarea-Philippi), some 4 m. N., where the Nahr Banias issues
from a cave, about 30 ft. broad. But two longer streams with less water
contest their claim, the Nahr Barrighit from Coelesyria, which rises
near the springs of the Litany, and the Nahr Hasbany from Hermon. The
four streams unite below the fortress of Banias, which once held the
gate of the valley, and flow into a marshy tract now called Huleh
(Semechonitis, and perhaps Merom of Joshua). There the Jordan begins to
fall below sea-level, rushing down 680 ft. in 9 m. to a delta, which
opens into the Sea of Galilee. Thereafter it follows a valley which is
usually not above 4 m. broad, but opens out twice into the small plains
of Bethshan and Jericho. The river actually flows in a depression, the
Zor, from a quarter to 2 m. wide, which it has hollowed out for itself
in the bed of the Ghor. During the rainy season (January and February),
when the Jordan overflows its banks, the Zor is flooded, but when the
water falls it produces rich crops. The floor of the Ghor falls gently
to the Zor, and is intersected by deep channels, which have been cut by
the small streams and winter torrents that traverse it on their way to
the Jordan. As far south as Kurn Surtabeh most of the valley is fertile,
and even between that point and the Dead Sea there are several
well-watered oases. In summer the heat in the Ghor is intense, 110° F.
in the shade, but in winter the temperature falls to 40°, and sometimes
to 32° at night. During the seasons of rain and melting snow the river
is very full, and liable to freshets. After twelve hours' rain it has
been known to rise from 4 to 5 ft., and to fall as rapidly. In 1257 the
Jordan was dammed up for several hours by a landslip, probably due to
heavy rain. On leaving the Sea of Galilee the water is quite clear, but
it soon assumes a tawny colour from the soft marl which it washes away
from its banks and deposits in the Dead Sea. On the whole it is an
unpleasant foul stream running between poisonous banks, and as such it
seems to have been regarded by the Jews and other Syrians. The Hebrew
poets did not sing its praises, and others compared it unfavourably with
the clear rivers of Damascus. The clay of the valley was used for
brickmaking, and Solomon established brass foundries there. From
crusading times to this day it has grown sugar-cane. In Roman times it
had extensive palm-groves and some small towns (e.g. Livias or Julias
opposite Jericho) and villages. The Jordan is crossed by two stone
bridges--one north of Lake Huleh, the other between that lake and the
Sea of Galilee--and by a wooden bridge on the road from Jerusalem to
Gilead and Moab. During the Roman period, and almost to the end of the
Arab supremacy, there were bridges on all the great lines of
communication between eastern and western Palestine, and ferries at
other places. The depth of water varies greatly with the season. When
not in flood the river is often fordable, and between the Sea of Galilee
and the Dead Sea there are then more than fifty fords--some of them of
historic interest. The only difficulty is occasioned by the erratic
zigzag current. The natural products of the Jordan valley--a tropical
oasis sunk in the temperate zone, and overhung by Alpine Hermon--are
unique. Papyrus grows in Lake Huleh, and rice and cereals thrive on its
shores, whilst below the Sea of Galilee the vegetation is almost
tropical. The flora and fauna present a large infusion of Ethiopian
types; and the fish, with which the river is abundantly stocked, have a
great affinity with those of the rivers and lakes of east Africa. Ere
the Jordan enters the Dead Sea, its valley has become very barren and
forbidding. It reaches the lake at a minus level of 1290 ft., the
depression continuing downwards to twice that depth in the bed of the
Dead Sea. It receives two affluents, with perennial waters, on the left,
the Yarmuk (Hieromax) which flows in from the volcanic Jaulan a little
south of the Sea of Galilee, and the Zerka (Jabbok) which comes from the
Belka district to a point more than half-way down the lower course. On
the right the Jalud descends from the plain of Esdraelon to near Beisan,
and the Far'a from near Nablus. Various salt springs rise in the lower
valley. The rest of the tributaries are wadis, dry except after rains.
Such human life as may be found in the valley now is mainly migratory.
The Samaritan villagers use it in winter as pasture-ground, and, with
the Circassians and Arabs of the east bank, cultivate plots here and
there. They retire on the approach of summer. Jericho is the only
considerable settlement in the lower valley, and it lies some distance
west of the stream on the lower slopes of the Judaean heights.
See W. F. Lynch, _Narrative of the U.S. Expedition_, &c. (1849); H. B.
Tristram, _Land of Israel_ (1865); J. Macgregor, _Rob Roy on the
Jordan_ (1870); A. Neubauer, _La Géographie du Talmud_ (1868); E.
Robinson, _Physical Geography of the Holy Land_ (1865); E. Hull,
_Mount Seir_, &c. (1885), and _Memoir on the Geology of Arabia
Petraea_, &c. (1886); G. A. Smith, _Hist. Geography of the Holy Land_
(1894); W. Libbey and F. E. Hoskins, _The Jordan Valley_, &c. (1905).
See also PALESTINE. (C. W. W.; D. G. H.)
JORDANES,[1] the historian of the Gothic nation, flourished about the
middle of the 6th century. All that we certainly know about his life is
contained in three sentences of his history of the Goths (cap. 50), from
which, among other particulars as to the history of his family, we learn
that his grandfather Paria was notary to Candac, the chief of a
confederation of Alans and other tribes settled during the latter half
of the 5th century on the south of the Danube in the provinces which are
now Bulgaria and the Dobrudscha. Jordanes himself was the notary of
Candac's nephew, the Gothic chief Gunthigis, until he took the vows of a
monk. This, according to the manner of speaking of that day, is the
meaning of his words _ante conversionem meam_, though it is quite
possible that he may at the same time have renounced the Arian creed of
his forefathers, which it is clear that he no longer held when he wrote
his Gothic history. The _Getica_ of Jordanes shows Gothic sympathies;
but these are probably due to an imitation of the tone of Cassiodorus,
from whom he draws practically all his material. He was not himself a
Goth, belonging to a confederation of Germanic tribes, embracing Alans
and Scyrians, which had come under the influence of the Ostrogoths
settled on the lower Danube; and his own sympathies are those of a
member of this confederation. He is accordingly friendly to the Goths,
even apart from the influence of Cassiodorus; but he is also
prepossessed in favour of the eastern emperors in whose territories this
confederation lived and whose subject he himself was. This makes him an
impartial authority on the last days of the Ostrogoths. At the same
time, living in Moesia, he is restricted in his outlook to Danubian
affairs. He has little to say of the inner history and policy of the
kingdom of Theodoric: his interests lie, as Mommsen says, within a
triangle of which the three points are Sirmium, Larissa and
Constantinople. Finally, connected as he was with the Alans, he shows
himself friendly to them, whenever they enter into his narrative.
We pass from the extremely shadowy personality of Jordanes to the more
interesting question of his works.
1. The _Romana_, or, as he himself calls it, _De summa temporum vel
origine actibusque gentis Romanorum_, was composed in 551. It was begun
before, but published after, the _Getica_. It is a sketch of the history
of the world from the creation, based on Jerome, the epitome of Florus,
Orosius and the ecclesiastical history of Socrates. There is a curious
reference to Iamblichus, apparently the neo-platonist philosopher, whose
name Jordanes, being, as he says himself, _agrammatus_, inserts by way
of a flourish. The work is only of any value for the century 450-550,
when Jordanes is dealing with recent history. It is merely a hasty
compilation intended to stand side by side with the _Getica_.[2]
2. The other work of Jordanes commonly called _De rebus Geticis_ or
_Getica_, was styled by himself _De origine actibusque Getarum_, and
was also written in 551. He informs us that while he was engaged upon
the _Romana_ a friend named Castalius invited him to compress into one
small treatise the twelve books--now lost--of the senator Cassiodorus,
on _The Origin and Actions of the Goths_. Jordanes professes to have had
the work of Cassiodorus in his hands for but three days, and to
reproduce the sense not the words; but his book, short as it is,
evidently contains long verbatim extracts from the earlier author, and
it may be suspected that the story of the _triduana lectio_ and the
apology _quamvis verba non recolo_, possibly even the friendly
invitation of Castalius, are mere blinds to cover his own entire want of
originality. This suspicion is strengthened by the fact (discovered by
von Sybel) that even the very preface to his book is taken almost word
for word from Rufinus's translation of Origen's commentary on the
epistle to the Romans. There is no doubt, even on Jordanes' own
statements, that his work is based upon that of Cassiodorus, and that
any historical worth which it possesses is due to that fact. Cassiodorus
was one of the very few men who, Roman by birth and sympathies, could
yet appreciate the greatness of the barbarians by whom the empire was
overthrown. The chief adviser of Theodoric, the East Gothic king in
Italy, he accepted with ardour that monarch's great scheme, if indeed,
he did not himself originally suggest it, of welding Roman and Goth
together into one harmonious state which should preserve the social
refinement and the intellectual culture of the Latin-speaking races
without losing the hardy virtues of their Teutonic conquerors. To this
aim everything in the political life of Cassiodorus was subservient, and
this aim he evidently kept before him in his Gothic history. But in
writing that history Cassiodorus was himself indebted to the work of a
certain Ablabius. It was Ablabius, apparently, who had first used the
Gothic sagas (_prisca carmina_); it was he who had constructed the stem
of the Amals. Whether he was a Greek, a Roman or a Goth we do not know;
nor can we say when he wrote, though his work may be dated conjecturally
in the early part of the reign of Theodoric the Great. We can only say
that he wrote on the origin and history of the Goths, using both Gothic
saga and Greek sources; and that if Jordanes used Cassiodorus,
Cassiodorus used, if to a less extent, the work of Ablabius.
Cassiodorus began his work, at the request of Theodoric, and therefore
before 526: it was finished by 533. At the root of the work lies a
theory, whencesoever derived, which identified the Goths with the
Scythians, whose country Darius Hystaspes invaded, and with the Getae of
Dacia, whom Trajan conquered. This double identification enabled
Cassiodorus to bring the favoured race into line with the peoples of
classical antiquity, to interweave with their history stories about
Hercules and the Amazons, to make them invade Egypt, to claim for them a
share in the wisdom of the semi-mythical Scythian philosopher Zamolxis.
He was thus able with some show of plausibility to represent the Goths
as "wiser than all the other barbarians and almost like the Greeks"
(Jord., _De reb. Get._, cap. v.), and to send a son of the Gothic king
Telephus to fight at the siege of Troy, with the ancestors of the
Romans. All this we can now perceive to have no relation to history, but
at the time it may have made the subjugation of the Roman less bitter to
feel that he was not after all bowing down before a race of barbarian
upstarts, but that his Amal sovereign was as firmly rooted in classical
antiquity as any Julius or Claudius who ever wore the purple. In the
eighteen years which elapsed between 533 and the composition of the
_Getica_ of Jordanes, great events, most disastrous for the
Romano-Gothic monarchy of Theodoric, had taken place. It was no longer
possible to write as if the whole civilization of the Western world
would sit down contentedly under the shadow of East Gothic dominion and
Amal sovereignty. And, moreover, the instincts of Jordanes, as a subject
of the Eastern Empire, predisposed him to flatter the sacred majesty of
Justinian, by whose victorious arms the overthrow of the barbarian
kingdom in Italy had been effected. Hence we perceive two currents of
tendency in the _Getica_. On the one hand, as a transcriber of the
philo-Goth Cassiodorus, he magnifies the race of Alaric and Theodoric,
and claims for them their full share, perhaps more than their full
share, of glory in the past. On the other hand he speaks of the great
anti-Teuton emperor Justinian, and of his reversal of the German
conquests of the 5th century, in language which would certainly have
grated on the ears of Totila and his heroes. When Ravenna is taken, and
Vitigis carried into captivity, Jordanes almost exults in the fact that
"the nobility of the Amals and the illustrious offspring of so many
mighty men have surrendered to a yet more illustrious prince and a yet
mightier general, whose fame shall not grow dim through all the
centuries." (_Getica_, lx. § 315).
This laudation, both of the Goths and of their Byzantine conquerors, may
perhaps help us to understand the motive with which the _Getica_ was
written. In the year 551 Germanus, nephew of Justinian, accompanied by
his bride, Matasuntha, grand-daughter of Theodoric, set forth to
reconquer Italy for the empire. His early death prevented any schemes
for a revived Romano-Gothic kingdom which may have been based on his
personality. His widow, however, bore a posthumous child, also named
Germanus, of whom Jordanes speaks (cap. 60) as "blending the blood of
the Anicii and the Amals, and furnishing a hope under the divine
blessing of one day uniting their glories." This younger Germanus did
nothing in after life to realize these anticipations; but the somewhat
pointed way in which his name and his mother's name are mentioned by
Jordanes lends some probability to the view that he hoped for the
child's succession to the Eastern Empire, and the final reconciliation
of the Goths and Romans in the person of a Gotho-Roman emperor.
The _De rebus Geticis_ falls naturally into four parts. The first
(chs. i.-xiii.) commences with a geographical description of the three
quarters of the world, and in more detail of Britain and Scanzia
(Sweden), from which the Goths under their king Berig migrated to the
southern coast of the Baltic. Their migration across what has since
been called Lithuania to the shores of the Euxine, and their
differentiation into Visigoths and Ostrogoths, are next described.
Chs. v.-xiii. contain an account of the intrusive Geto-Scythian
element before alluded to.
The second section (chs. xiv.-xxiv.) returns to the true history of
the Gothic nation, sets forth the genealogy of the Amal kings, and
describes the inroads of the Goths into the Roman Empire in the 3rd
century, with the foundation and the overthrow of the great but
somewhat shadowy kingdom of Hermanric.
The third section (chs. xxv.-xlvii.) traces the history of the West
Goths from the Hunnish invasion to the downfall of the Gothic kingdom
in Gaul under Alaric II. (376-507). The best part of this section, and
indeed of the whole book, is the seven chapters devoted to Attila's
invasion of Gaul and the battle of the Mauriac plains. Here we have in
all probability a verbatim extract from Cassiodorus, who (possibly
resting on Ablabius) interwove with his narrative large portions of
the Gothic sagas. The celebrated expression _certaminis gaudia_
assuredly came at first neither from the suave minister Cassiodorus
nor from the small-souled notary Jordanes, but is the translation of
some thought which first found utterance through the lips of a Gothic
minstrel.
The fourth section (chs. xlviii.-lx.) traces the history of the East
Goths from the same Hunnish invasion to the first overthrow of the
Gothic monarchy in Italy (376-539). In this fourth section are
inserted, somewhat out of their proper place, some valuable details as
to the _Gothi Minores_, "an immense people dwelling in the region of
Nicopolis, with their high priest and primate Vulfilas, who is said
also to have taught them letters." The book closes with the allusion
to Germanus and the panegyric on Justinian as the conqueror of the
Goths referred to above.
Jordanes refers in the _Getica_ to a number of authors besides
Cassiodorus; but he owes his knowledge of them to Cassiodorus. It is
perhaps only when he is using Orosius that we can hold Jordanes to
have borrowed directly. Otherwise, as Mommsen says, the _Getica is a
mera epitome, laxata ea et perversa, historiae Gothicae
Cassiodorianae_.
As to the style and literary character of Jordanes, every author who
has used him speaks in terms of severe censure. When he is left to
himself and not merely transcribing, he is sometimes scarcely
grammatical. There are awkward gaps in his narrative and statements
inconsistent with each other. He quotes, as if he were familiarly
acquainted with their writings, a number of Greek and Roman writers,
of whom it is almost certain that he had not read more than one or
two. At the same time he does not quote the chronicler Marcellinus,
from whom he has copied verbatim the history of the deposition of
Augustulus. All these faults make him a peculiarly unsatisfactory
authority where we cannot check his statements by those of other
authors. It may, however, be pleaded in extenuation that he is
professedly a transcriber, and, if his story be correct, a
transcriber in peculiarly unfavourable circumstances. He has also
himself suffered much from the inaccuracy of copyists. But nothing has
really been more unfortunate for the reputation of Jordanes as a
writer than the extreme preciousness of the information which he has
preserved to us. The Teutonic tribes whose dim origins he records have
in the course of centuries attained to world-wide dominion. The battle
in the Mauriac plains of which he is really the sole historian, is now
seen to have had important bearings on the destinies of the world. And
thus the hasty pamphlet of a half-educated Gothic monk has been forced
into prominence, almost into rivalry with the finished productions of
the great writers of classical antiquity. No wonder that it stands the
comparison badly; but with all its faults the _Getica_ of Jordanes
will probably ever retain its place side by side with the _De moribus
Germanorum_ of Tacitus as a chief source of information respecting the
history, institutions and modes of thought of our Teutonic
forefathers.
EDITIONS.--The classical edition is that of Mommsen (in _Mon. Germ.
hist. auct. antiq._, v., ii.), which supersedes the older editions,
such as that in the first volume of Muratori's _Scriptt. rer. Ital._
The best MS. is the Heidelberg MS., written in Germany, probably in
the 8th century; but this perished in the fire at Mommsen's house. The
next of the MSS. in value are the Vaticanus Palatinus of the 10th
century, and the Valenciennes MS. of the 9th.
AUTHORITIES.--Von Sybel's essay, _De fontibus Jordanis_ (1838);
Schirren's _De ratione quae inter Jordanem et Cassiodorum intercedat
Commentatio_ (Dorpat, 1858); Kopke's _Die Anfänge des Königthums
beiden Gothen_ (Berlin, 1859); Dahn's _Die Könige der Germanen_, vol.
ii. (Munich, 1861); Ebert's _Geschichte der Christlich-Lateinischen
Literatur_ (Leipsic, 1874); Wattenbach's _Deutschlands
Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter_ (Berlin, 1877); and the introduction
of Mommsen to his edition. (T. H.; E. Br.)