Amalasontha
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Amalasontha (Amalasonte, Amalasuintha: Lat. Amalasuentha): (d. AD 535). Queen of the Ostrogoths. The younger daughter of King Theodoric I “the Great”, she was well-known for her justice and wisdom as a ruler. In AD 526, she became the regent for her minor son, Athalaric. Possessing both physical beauty and intelligence, she is considered among the exceptional female rulers of history. Thanks in great part to the influence of her prime minister, the famous philosopher Cassiodorus, her outlook and lifestyle were distinctly Roman, a fact that cause much resentment towards her from the Gothic nobles of Italy. The leader of this dissenting party was her cousin, Theodahad, who soon became such a threat, that Amalasontha considered fleeing to Constantinople. She was prevented from this action, however, by realizing that she had more to fear from the machinations of the Roman Empress Theodora than she did from Theodahad. She succeeded in coming to an agreement with her cousin, and peace was restored in Italy. A serious new threat arose when, in 534, Athalaric died, never having reached adult age. Amalasontha now found herself holding full power as Queen but without a solid justification for the title. Faced with a revolt from the Gothic nobility, who refused to accept the sole rule of a woman, Amalasontha agreed to marry Theodahad and share the throne with him. This decision, however, only served to give Theodahad the power that he had always wanted and he had no wish to share it with his cousin. Amalasontha was deposed and sent as a prisoner to a small island in Lake Bolzano. Soon afterwards, she was assassinated.
Amalasontha’s murder had far-reaching effects that Theodahad could never have realized. The new king was confronted by Peter, the envoy of the Roman Emperor Justinian, who condemned the murder. Theodahad tried to claim that he had no connection to the assassination, but his word was not believed by Justinian. The Emperor now saw a way to use the death of Amalasontha as a way to further his own ambitions for reconquering Italy. Declaring himself to be Amalasontha’s avenger, Justinian sent two of his armies into Italy. Marching from Illyricum, one force, under the command of Mundus, attacked the Ostrogoth kingdom from the north. The other army, under the command of the great general Belisarius, advanced from North Africa, through Sicily, and onto the southern Italian mainland. The resulting war would be long and costly for both sides. The Ostrogothic kingdom was eventually destroyed and the Ostrogoths themselves disappeared as a people from history. The Romans, or as they were to eventually be known, Byzantines, held Italy in the end but were left too weak to be able to stand against a new set of invaders. The Germanic Lombards were able to seize control northern Italy while the southern part of the peninsula and Sicily remained in Byzantine hands. It was this division, perhaps more than any other factor, which created the North-South cultural divide that still remains in modern Italy.