Amalasuntha

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Amalasuntha

Amalasuntha (also known as Amalasuentha, Amalaswintha, Amalasuintha or Amalasontha) (ca 495 - 30 April 534/535) was a queen of the Ostrogoths from 516 to 534.

A daughter of Ostrogothic king Theodoric the Great

Theodoric the Great

File:Theodoric bronze weight inlaid with silver issued by prefect Catulinus Rome 493 526.jpg'Theodoric the Great' , known in Latin as 'Flavius Theodericus' and in Greek sources, was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , and regent of the Visigoths ....
, she secretly married a slave named Traguilla. When her mother Audofleda

Audofleda

Audofleda was the sister of Clovis I, King of the Franks. She married Theodoric the Great, King of the Ostrogoths , around 493 ad . This political move allied Theodoric with the Franks, and by marrying his daughters off to the kings of the Burgundians, the Vandals, and the Visigoths, he allied himself with every major 'Barbarian' kingdom in...
found them together Traguilla was killed.

She was married in 515 to Eutharic (b. ca 480 - 522), an Ostrogoth noble of the old Areal line, who had previously been living in Visigothic Iberia

Iberian Peninsula

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Theodoric the Great

Audofleda

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France....
, son of Widerich (b. ca 450), grandson of Berismund (b. ca 410), and great-grandson of Thorismund (d. aft. 400), King of the Ostrogoths ca 400.

Her husband died, apparently in the early years of her marriage, leaving her with two children, Athalaric

Athalaric

Athalaric was the King of the Ostrogoths in Italy. The grandson of Theodoric the Great, he became king upon his grandfather's death in 526.As Athalaric was only ten years old, the regency was assumed by his mother, Amalasuntha....
and Matasuntha (ca 517 - aft. 550), wife ca 550 of Germanus Justinus

Germanus Justinus

Germanus Iustinus was a General of the Byzantine Empire and member of the Justinian Dynasty.The paternal nephew of Justinian I, and whose father was born ca 485, he became Magister Militum for Thracia ca 525, a Roman Patricius in 536 and a Diplomat, and was placed in charge of Imperial forces in the Gothic War in 550....
. On the death of her father in 526, her son succeeded him, but she held the power as regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present or debilitated....
for her son. Deeply imbued with the old Roman culture, she gave to that son's education a more refined and literary turn than suited the ideas of her Gothic subjects. Conscious of her unpopularity she banished, and afterwards put to death, three Gothic nobles whom she suspected of intriguing against her rule, and at the same time opened negotiations with the emperor Justinian I

Justinian I

Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus , AD 482 or 483 ? 13 or 14 November 565, was the second member of the Justinian Dynasty and List of Roman Emperors from 527 until his death....
with the view of removing herself and the Gothic treasure to Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
. Her son's death in 534 made little change in the posture of affairs.

Now queen, Amalasuntha made her cousin Theodahad

Theodahad

File:Theodahad.jpgFile:Theodahad_534_536_Ostrogoth_minted_in_Rome.jpgTheodahad was the King of the Ostrogoths from 534 to 536 and a nephew of Theodoric the Great through his sister....
partner of her throne (not, as sometimes stated, her husband, for his wife was still living), with the intent of strengthening her position. The choice was unfortunate, for Theodahad, in spite of a varnish of literary culture, was a coward and a scoundrel. He fostered the disaffection of the Goths, and either by his orders or with his permission, Amalasuntha was imprisoned in the island of Martana in the Tuscan lake of Bolsena, where on 30 April in the spring of 534/535 she was murdered in her bath.

The letters of Cassiodorus

Cassiodorus

Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman Empire statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths....
, chief minister and literary adviser of Amalasuntha, and the histories of Procopius

Procopius

Procopius of Caesarea was a prominent Byzantine Empire scholar of the family Procopius . A participant himself in the wars of the Emperor Justinian I, he was the major historian of the 6th century, writing the Wars of Justinian, the Buildings of Justinian and the celebrated Secret History....
and Jordanes

Jordanes

Jordanes , was a 6th century Roman bureaucrat , who turned his hand to history later in life.Though he also wrote Romana , a book about the history of Rome, his most known work is his Getica, written in Constantinople about AD 551 ....
, give us our chief information as to the character of Amalasuntha.

The life of Amalasunta was made the subject of a tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
, the first play written by the young Goldoni and presented at Milan

Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
in (1733).