User:Tbay99/Amalasuintha

Bibliography:

Cassiodorus, Magnus Aurellus. “The Letters of Cassiodorus by Senator Cassiodorus - Free Ebook.” Translated by Thomas Hodgkins. Project Gutenburg. , June 15, 2006. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18590.

• This source is the same source as the one above, but much easier to work with, due to it being interactive and not scanned pages. This source will be used to demostrate correspondences of Amalasuintha, and her son Athalaric. Athalaric's letters matter because it can be assumed that Amalasuintha wrote for Athalaric, since he was around 10 years old when he became King.

Craddock, Jonathan Paul. "Amalasuintha: Ostrogothic Successor A.D. 526-535." Order No. 1380353, California State University, Long Beach, 1996. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/illinoisstate.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/amalasuintha-ostrogothic-successor-d-526-535/docview/304322307/se-2.

• This source is a dissertation on Amalasuintha. I place this secondary source as the second most important to the article because it focuses on Amalasuintha, and was written in the late 1990s. The number 1 source was written in 2017. This dissertation adds to the historiography of Amalasuintha and will be useful for comparing views towards Amalasuintha throughout the years.

Lee, A. D. “Abduction and Assassination: The Clandestine Face of Roman Diplomacy in Late Antiquity.” The International History Review 31, no. 1 (2009): 1–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40111053.

• Journal article about assassinations carried out during the Late Antiquity. Amalasuintha is talked about and gives insight on how it effected Justinian. Also gives reasons for why she was assassinated.

Lung, Ecaterina. “Depictions of Women in the Works of Early Byzantine Historians and Chroniclers : Between Stereotype and Reality.” Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques 43, no. 1 (2017): 4–18. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44632234.

• In this journal article, Ecaterina Lung talks about how Byzantine women were depicted through the works of Byzantine Historians, like Procopius, Agathias, and Malalas from the 6th century to the 9th century. This article could help strengthen Amalasuintha's Wikipedia article, because it talks about how women were sometimes forced into marriage to get an heir to a thrown and start alliances. This was done to Matasuntha, Amalasuintha's daughter, which could be added to her legacy heading in the article.

Procopius; George Arthur Williamson. “The Secret History: Procopius: Procopius: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, January 1, 1969. https://archive.org/details/secrethistorypro00proc/page/n7/mode/2up.

• This source is written my Procopius, and was written after the death of Amalasuintha. This source is useful, because it talks negatively of Theodora, Justinian's wife, and praises Amalasuintha. This resource will be useful for introducing an arguement that Theodora had something to do with Amalasuintha's death.

Sarantis, Alexander. “War and Diplomacy in Pannonia and the Northwest Balkans during the Reign of Justinian: The Gepid Threat and Imperial Responses.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 63 (2009): 15–40. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41219761.

• This source shines light on achievements of Amalasuintha during the beginning of her regency. Not only does it give us a look at the time of her regency, but it also talks about the tension leading up to Belisarious invading Gothic Italy in 535.

Vitiello, Massimiliano. Theodahad: The Platonic King at the Collapse of Ostrogoth Italy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.

• This book has a lot of good information on what kind of man Theodahad was, and how it affected relationships with Theodoric and Amalasuintha.
• Also goes deeper into what Amalasuintha did as regent, and queen.

Vitiello, Massimiliano. “‘NOURISHED AT THE BREAST OF ROME’: THE QUEENS OF OSTROGOTHIC ITALY AND THE EDUCATION OF THE ROMAN ELITE.” Rheinisches Museum Für Philologie 149, no. 3/4 (2006): 398–412. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41234687.

• Talks about the elite women in Ostrogothic society, such as, Amalasuintha, and her daughter Matasuintha.

Vitiello, Massimilliano. Amalasuintha. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017.

• This source is the most important secondary source for Amalasuintha. It is a great source for many reasons. First, It begins the book by talking about what primary documents have said about Amalasuintha. After going over the historiography, it talks about her life and the importance of her.

Amalasuintha

Introduction:

Amalasuintha (495 - April 30, 534/535 CE.) ruled the Ostrogothic Kingdom as regent from 526 to 535. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogothic Kingdom covered what is now modern day Italy. Amalasuintha descended from the Amali dynasty, and was the youngest daughter of Theodoric the Great. Amalasuintha married Eutheric, a prince of the Amali dynasty, to ensure a legitimate heir to the throne. Eutheric died in 522 a few years before Amalasuintha's father and king Theodoric's death in 526, which concerned Theodoric because his Kingdom lacked an adult male heir to the throne. Indeed, as Amalasuintha's son Athalaric was only 10 years old at the time of Theodoric's death, Amalasuintha took control of the Kingdom along side her son as regent. Although accounts by Cassiodorus and Procopius refer Athalaric as King, nevertheless Amalasuintha effectively ruled on behalf of Athalaric.

Amalasuintha was highly educated, especially as a women in the 6th century, a time where education for any human was extremely rare. In fact, she was praised by both Cassiodorus, and Procopius for her wisdom and her ability to speak three languages, (Greek, Gothic, Latin). Along with being wise, she was known for her Roman virtues and values, which became an issue during her regency amongst her inner circle of people. Little modern literature has been written on Amalasuintha, but ancient scholars like Cassiodorus and Procopius, have been helpful in understanding what Amalasuintha's reign was like and how she was viewed. Gregory of Tours was a Frankish historian and Bishop that wrote literature that undermines Amalasuintha and shows how people from neighboring kingdoms viewed her after her assassination. Of all the things that occurred during her time as regent and queen regnant, she is mostly known for her cousins betrayal of her and assassination in the year 535. It is unfortunate that her assassination is what is most known of her, and this article will challenge that portrayal.

Family:

Amalasuintha was born into a powerful and historical family dynasty.

Historiography:

in 515, Amalasuintha married Eutharic (c. 480 – 522), an Ostrogoth noble of the old Amali dynasty who had been previously living in the Arian Kingdom of Hispania. This marriage was a political marriage set up by her father (Theodoric the Great), king of the Ostrogoths. Theodoric was planning on expanding his influence over the Western Empire, and he thought this could be done by having his eldest daughter marry a man within their own bloodline. The reasoning behind this was so that all the royal Germanic families of the barbarian kingdoms would be brought together under the Amali line. Eutharic was the son of Her husband was the son of Widerich (born c. 450), grandson of Berismund (born c. 410), and great-grandson of Thorismund (died after 400), king of the Ostrogoths c. 400.

As stated previously, Amalasuintha was an intellectual, and was well known for her extensive knowledge and reading, which included fluency in Latin, Greek and Gothic. In addition, she was a student of philosophy and was said to possess the wisdom of Solomon. Amalasuintha was also described in her day as possessing all of the central Roman virtues expected of a noble woman: happiness, fertility, and patience, although more emphasis was placed on her virtues within the political realm versus the feminine, something that separates her from other Ostrogoth princesses.^{[page needed]} Like most Ostrogoths, Amalasuintha was an Arian Christian.^{[unreliable source?]}

Eutharic died, apparently in the early years of his marriage to Amalasuintha, leaving her with two children, Athalaric and Matasuntha (c. 517 – after 550).^{[citation needed]}

Underlined sentence means I still need editing done.