political lexicon parallels the Latin sources (a point I return to in Chapter 5, where I discuss the representation of Amalasuintha as a Roman empress). For now it is enough to state that Amalasuintha enjoyed a position of power that was groundbreaking for a woman in the Gothic world and also among other post-Roman kingdoms, while it was not so unusual in the empire.
Domina Amalasuintha: A Woman in Power in the Gothic World
While Amalasuintha’s position as royal regent mother was unusual in the Gothic world, her rulership over a highly Romanized territory and her dwelling in Ravenna—which had been the residence of the last emperors—facilitated the development of her royal status. Because the “regency” had always entailed a de facto status, not an institutionalized position, and considering the inherent difficulties for a woman to rule over the Goths, Amalasuintha needed the royal title to exercise her government over Italy and to enter into diplomacy with the empire and the other kingdoms. Queenship was the only way for Theoderic to leave to his daughter the power to rule for her son, and the need for a “queen” must have been strong under these circumstances. Theoderic’s authority was strong enough to make this solution acceptable to even the most reluctant Goths.
Amalasuintha’s position as a woman in power was unique in the post-Roman courts of her generation, and we have to wait until the late sixth century to find cases in the West that are even partially similar (see the Epilogue). It was not remarkable, however, in the context of the history of the empire, which not long before had known two Augustae, Pulcheria and Aelia Eudocia, respectively the sister and the wife of Theodosius II. Recent cases of virgins and widows active in government on behalf of children included Pulcheria and Galla Placidia. Pulcheria proclaimed herself Augusta on 4 July 414; she was not married and exercised the function of tutor for her younger brother, Theodosius II. Galla Placidia, who is the case par excellence in the Roman West, was Augusta (by virtue of her marriage to Constantius III) when she started to rule for her son.
Italy was technically under the jurisdiction of the Theodosian Code; but it is unlikely that Amalasuintha could base her authority over Athalaric and the Goths on imperial laws, like that issued in 390, which empowered a widow to be the legal guardian of her children so long as she did not remarry.100 While this law, referring to the Roman concept of tutela, had a legacy in the Bugundian and Visigothic laws, it is hard to imagine that it was applicable to royal succession at the Gothic court of Amalasuintha—and still less in later cases of regents in the post-Roman kingdoms. Still, with Roman models before her eyes, Amalasuintha created for herself a political role so strong that she was in a position, first after the death of her father and then after the premature loss of her son, to develop new solutions of power, including the exercise of the co-regency.
At least in the 530s, our sources make it clear that Amalasuintha had the authority to make decisions about the politics of the kingdom, and even to negotiate with Justinian. In late 533, when Athalaric was nearing the age of majority, Cassiodorus praised Amalasuintha as the ruler of the kingdom. Her military policy, which originated from the very beginning of her son’s reign, proved her worthy of her Amal ancestry: “But under this queen (domina), all of whose kindred is royal, with God’s help our army will terrify foreign powers. By prudent and nicely calculated policy, it is neither worn down by continual fighting, nor, again, is it enervated by prolonged peace.”101 These lines caught the attention of Herwig Wolfram, who commented: “Her ancestors … make Amalasuintha the commander of the Gothic army, indeed a Gothic ‘queen of the army.’ Thus after the death of Athalaric in 534 his mother could step forward as queen and rule freely over the kingdom; the enormous increase of her power since 526 had given her all the means for acting so.”102 Only one year later she could devise the consortium regni, which many Goths viewed as the final outrage of an ambitious woman.
Amalasuintha’s role in the kingdom is amply attested for the later period. In a praeceptum of Pope Felix IV dated August 530 (one of the years for which the Variae are silent) the pope addressed the two rulers as domini nostri regnantes.103 Cassiodorus does the same by using the expression communes domini in his letter-panegyric of late 533,104 and he also makes frequent references to Athalaric and Amalasuintha as domini/regnantes and principes in letters written in 533–534.105 In addition, he highlights the activity of Amalasuintha in the government and her beneficial caritas by putting it in opposition to the passive role of Athalaric: “The king is on holiday, and his mother’s affection holds rule (matris regnat affectio); thereby, she so acts in everything that we may feel the protection of a universal love (generalis caritas). He to whom all things are subject accords this lady a glorious obedience…. But we must ascribe this wonder to the characters of them both; for such is his mother’s intelligence (genius maternus), whom even a foreign prince should rightfully obey.”106 Jordanes confirms the views of the Cassiodoran letter in the Romana, where he makes a similar statement: “Although living as a minor (pueriliter) for eight years, he was passing the time (degebat) with his mother Amalasuintha ruling.”107 When, in late 534, Theodahad’s promotion was announced, both he and Amalasuintha made reference to this previous time, when she made decisions alone and carried the weight of the kingdom upon her shoulders. Amalasuintha “previously bore the burden of the state in solitary cogitation (solitaria cogitatione)” and “ruled alone (imperavit sola) with her little child.”108
The Eastern sources confirm the active role of Amalasuintha that we understand from the Western authors. Count Marcellinus refers to her as the regina creatrix of Theodahad, while the Constitutio Pragmatica confirms that Amalasuintha, like Athalaric, intervened on behalf of the Romans. In this document her name is associated with her son rather than with Theodahad.109 This is because she had ruled for many years beside Athalaric, while it is unlikely that anything significant was done on behalf of the Romans during the few short weeks of the co-regency, which the emperor never approved.
In the thirty-five years that separate the settling of the Goths in Italy from Amalasuintha’s regency, much had changed at the Gothic court. Amalasuintha built her position as a female ruler of the kingdom of Italy progressively, responding to the political realities of the Gothic court. She was definitely more than a royal Gothic viduvo (widow);110 she was more than a qens (γυνή), and more than a mother (aiþei, μήτηρ) living at the court.111 She was the “royal mother” (regia mater), the “regent” (ἐπίτροπος, regens), the tutor and the counselor; she was the Gothic ragineis who, as domina regnans and most likely as regina, ruled for her son during the entire length of his reign.
Chapter 2
Amalasuintha at the Palace of Ravenna
The Making of a Queen
From her youth, indeed probably from the moment of her birth, Amalasuintha had been an important part of Theoderic’s political plans. Naturally her inevitable future as the wife of a king had been clear since her childhood—we may also wonder whether Theoderic dreamed of joining her to the imperial family. But slowly it became apparent that the aging king would have no son, and that Amalasuintha should marry the successor to the Gothic throne. In his plan for her education, the king prepared his daughter to be the future queen of Italy.
Amalasuintha’s education was the foundation of her future government and the basis of her political choices. Her marriage was determined by Theoderic’s ambition to reunify the two Gothic peoples (Ostrogoths and Visigoths) under the Amal name and the government of Ravenna. And even if the Romans would ultimately have cause to regret
