Editing Getica (section)

==Synopsis of the work==
The ''Getica'' begins with a discussion of a large island named [[Scandza]], which faces the mouth of the [[Vistula]] river and had been described by the writers [[Claudius Ptolemy]] and [[Pomponius Mela]]. Jordanes reports this island to be the original home of many different peoples including the Goths, who have swarmed like bees from there (16-25). Jordanes commences the history of the Goths with the emigration of a Gothic king named [[Berig]] with three ships from Scandza to [[Gothiscandza]] (25, 94), in the distant past. In the account of Jordanes (or Cassiodorus), Herodotus' [[Getae|Getian]] demi-god [[Zalmoxis]] becomes a king of the Goths (39). Jordanes tells how the Goths sacked "[[Troy]] and Ilium" just after they had recovered somewhat from the war with [[Agamemnon]] (108). They are also said to have encountered the Egyptian [[pharaoh]] [[Vesosis]] (47). The less-fictional part of Jordanes' work begins when the Goths encounter Roman military forces in the 3rd century AD. The work concludes with the defeat of the Goths by the Byzantine general [[Belisarius]], which was recent in the time of Jordanes. Jordanes states that he writes to honour those who were victorious over the Goths after a history of 2030 years.