and wrote chiefly or entirely from his recollection of this hasty
perusal[48]. He says that he added some suitable passages from the
Greek and Latin historians, but his own range of historical reading
was evidently so narrow that we may fairly suspect these additions to
have been of the slenderest possible dimensions. Upon the whole, there
can be little doubt that it is a safe rule to attribute everything
that is good or passable in this little treatise to Cassiodorus, and
everything that is very bad, childish, and absurd in it to Jordanes.

[Footnote 45: 'De Rebus Geticis,' or 'De Gothorum Origine,' is the
name by which this little treatise is usually known. It seems to be
doubtful, however, what title, if any, Jordanes himself prefixed to
it. Mommsen calls it simply 'Getica.']

[Footnote 46: Especially Schirren, 'De Ratione quae inter Jordanem et
Cassiodorum intercedat' (Dorpat, 1858); Sybel, 'De Fontibus Libri
Jordanis' (Berlin, 1838); and Köpke, 'Die Anfänge des Königthums bei
den Gothen' (Berlin, 1859).]

[Footnote 47: _Possibly_ in the end Bishop of Crotona, or a Defensor
of the Roman Church, since we find a Jordanes in each of these
positions; but this is mere guesswork, and to me neither theory seems
probable.]

[Footnote 48: 'Sed ut non mentiar, ad triduanam lectionem
dispensatoris ejus beneficio libros ipsos antehac relegi.'
Notwithstanding the 'ut non mentiar,' most of those who have enquired
into the subject have come to the opinion which is bluntly expressed
by Usener (p. 73), 'Die dreitägige Frist die Jordanes zur Benutzung
der 12 Bücher gehabt haben will, _ist natürlich Schwindel_.' Even by