AMALASUNTHA

This article appears in Volume V01, Page 778 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: ALM-ANC

AMALASUNTHA or AMALASUENTHA, queen of the Ostrogoths (d. 535), daughter of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, was married in 515 to Eutharic, an Ostrogoth of the old Amal line, who had previously been living in Spain. Her husband died, apparently in the early years of her

marriage

MARRIAGE

, leaving her with two children, Athalaricand Matasuentha. On the death of her father in 526, she succeeded him, acting as regent for her son, but being herself 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

GOTHIC

subjects. Conscious of her unpopularity she banished, and afterwards put to death, three

Gothic

GOTHIC

nobles whom she suspected of intriguing against her

rule

RULE

, and at the same time opened negotiations with the emperor Justinian with the view of removing herself and the Gothic treasure to

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

. Her son's death in 534 made but little

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. «a urmu', to bend)

in the posture of affairs. Amalasuntha, now queen, with a view of strengthening her position, made her

cousin

COUSIN (Fr. cousin, Ital. cugino, Late Lat. cosinus, perhaps a popular and
familiar
- FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)
abbreviation of consobrinus, which has the same sense in classical Latin)
COUSIN, JEAN (1500-1590)
COUSIN, VICTOR (1792–1867)

Theodahad partner of her throne (not, as sometimes stated, her husband, for his wife was still living). The choice was unfortunate. Theodahad, notwithstanding 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 on an

island

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

in the Tuscan lake of Bolsena, where in the

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

of 535 she was murdered in her bath.
The letters of Cassiodorus,

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

minister and literary adviser of Amalasuntha, and the histories of Procopius and Jordanes, give us our

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

information as to the character of Amalasuntha.

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