Arne Søby Christensen

Danish historian

University of Copenhagen

Notable worksCassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths

Arne Søby Christensen (born 1945) is a Danish historian. He is an associate professor in history at the University of Copenhagen.^[1]

Biography

Arne Søby Christensen was born in Copenhagen in 1945. He received a cand.mag. in history from the University of Copenhagen in 1975.^[2] His book Lactantius the Historian was published in 1980.^[3] From 1989 to 1998, Christensen was a member of the Danish Historical Society.^[4]

The basic contention of this book is that nothing in the first third of Jordanes's Getica has anything whatsoever to do with a history of the Goths.

- Arne Søby Christensen^[5]

Christensen received his PhD in history from the University of Copenhagen in June 2002. His disputation was supervised by Ian N. Wood and Niels Lund.^[2] His thesis, Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths, concerned the reliability of Getica by Jordanes and the latter's alleged chief source, the now lost Origo Gothica by Cassiodorus.^[2] In his thesis, Christensen claims that the Origo Gothica and Getica are entirely fabricated accounts without any foundation in Gothic oral tradition, being instead based upon a dubious synthesis of Greco-Roman sources. Christensen claims that the Greco-Romans knew nothing about the Goths until the 3rd century AD,^[2] and that archaeological evidence on Gothic origins is useless.^[6] On this account, Christensen recommended that the history of the migration period be rewritten.^[2]

An English translation of Christensen's thesis was published in 2002 by Museum Tusculanum Press.^[7] Christensen's thesis has generated much interest among scholars.^[8] It was praised by Walter Goffart as a useful work.^[9] Anthropologist Peter S. Wells considered it a significant contribution to the study of ancient peoples of northern Europe.^[10] Ian N. Wood considered it an interesting work, although he thought Christensen went too far in denying Gothic elements in the texts.^[11] Sigbjørn Sønnesyn considered Christensen's theories suspiciously similar to circular reasoning.^[12] Michael Whitby dismissed Christensen's work as extreme and a mere footnote to what has already been written on the subject.^[13] Dick Harrison considered Christensen's book interesting, although he criticized its rejection of archaeological evidence and refusal to respond to the views of dissenting scholars.^[14]

Selected works

Kristenforfølgelserne i Rom indtil år 250, 1977
Lactantius the Historian. An Analysis of the De Mortibus Persecutorum., 1980
Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth, 2002

References

^ Forening, Den Danske Historiske (2005). "Medvirkende ved dette hæfte". Historisk Tidsskrift (in Danish). 105 (1). Danish Historical Society: 319.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Fink-Jensen, Jens, ed. (2002). København Universitets Årbog 2002 (in Danish). University of Copenhagen. pp. 43–44. ISBN 87-90655-18-4.
^ Nicholson, Olivier (October 1984). "Arne Søby Christensen: Lactantius the Historian. An Analysis of the De Mortibus Persecutorum". The Classical Review. 34 (2). Classical Association: 322–323. doi:10.1017/S0009840X00104160. S2CID 197837021. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
^ "Den danske historiske Forenings bestyrelse" (in Danish). Danish Historical Society.
^ Christensen 2002, p. 318.
^ Christensen 2002, p. 40.
^ Christensen 2002.
^ Bjørn, Claus (June 6, 2002). "Myten om goterne" [The Myth of the Goths] (in Danish). Kristeligt Dagblad.
^ Goffart, Walter (2006). Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 285. ISBN 0812200284. I am much indebted to Professor Niels Lund (Copenhagen) for sending me Christensen's work
^ Wells, Peter S. (2004). "Cassiodorus, Jordanes, and the History of the Goths". The Historian. 66 (2). Wiley-Blackwell: 389–390. JSTOR 24452833. Christensen concludes that Jordanes's Getica is a fabricated account... Christensen's clear and systematic presentation makes this book a significant contribution to the literature on the formation of the early historical peoples of Europe
^ Wood, Ian N. (2003). "Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths" (PDF). Historisk Tidsskrift. 103 (2). Danish Historical Association: 465–484. Retrieved February 27, 2020. I think that Christensen has been too stringent in denying the existence of Gothic elements in the text...
^ Sønnesyn, Sigbjørn (2004). "Arne Søby Christensen, Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths". Scandinavian Journal of History. 29 (3–4). Taylor & Francis: 306–308. doi:10.1080/03468750410005719. S2CID 162534744. Peter Heather has argued that Jordanes' account of the genealogy of the Amal family may in part be based on a Gothic tradition. This claim is opposed by Christensen with something looking suspiciously like circular argumentation.
^ Whitby, Michael (October 2003). "A. S. Christensen: Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths". The Classical Review. 53 (2). Classical Association: 498. doi:10.1093/cr/53.2.498. Retrieved February 27, 2020. This is surely too extreme... [T]he fact remains that this, even if very clearly presented and argued, is little more than a long footnote to Heather's work; only real enthusiasts will feel the need to consult it.
^ Harrison, Dick (2004). "Arne Søby Christensen, Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths" (PDF). Historisk tidskrift (in Swedish). 124 (1). Svenska historiska föreningen: 139–140. My main objection is Christensen's excessively condescending attitude towards the field of archaeology. An entire field is dismissed in a single footnote... To ignore scholarly opponents is never a healthy strategy, and this unfortunately casts a dark shadow over what is nevertheless a very interesting book.

Bibliography

Christensen, Arne Søby (2002). Cassiodorus, Jordanes and the History of the Goths: Studies in a Migration Myth. Translated by Flegal, Heidi. Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 87-7289-7104.