privilege of a life far from the wars. Theodahad dedicated himself to philosophy and to the study of literature and the Holy Scriptures.20 And Theoderic did not deny this kind of education to the women of his household. His sister Amalaberga and some other princesses of the family, who were raised at the palace and later married to other kings, received an education in literature and manners.21
But it was Amalasuintha who spent about thirty years beside her father at the court of Ravenna, and it was she who benefited from an education in Roman style and experience in many ways reminiscent of Theoderic’s childhood in Constantinople.
An Education in the Roman Style
Grammatica and rhetorica stood as the foundation of the traditional education that Theoderic encouraged in his kingdom. Around the year 510, in his pamphlet known as Paraenesis Didascalica, Ennodius celebrated these two disciplines as complementary to the virtues of modesty, chastity, and faith: verecundia, castitas, fides. Intellectuals such as Augustine and Jerome had recommended the cultivation of these virtues to elite Roman ladies, considering them fundamental for the Christian education of women.22
Ennodius’s work was intended for two of his male pupils, Ambrosius and Beatus, who asked him for advice before moving to Rome to complete their studies. Toward the end of the pamphlet, Ennodius recommended teachers for them to follow, providing a list of names: Faustus and Avienus, Festus and Symmachus, Probinus, Cethegus, Boethius, Agapitus, and Probus.23 These were the senators of old distinguished families, who were among the most powerful politicians in Rome at the time; in his efforts to stay connected to the elite and to the cultural circles of the old capital, Ennodius corresponded with many of them. Festus, Cethegus, and Symmachus held the position of head of the Roman Senate (caput senatus). Ennodius dedicated his pamphlet to Symmachus and sent a copy to him.24 The Roman aristocracy was still a vital organ for the administration of Italy and the palace of Ravenna, and Ennodius urged his students: “May the heavenly Providence join you to the obedience of all those whom I have just mentioned.”25
Ennodius recommended men who were not simply teachers of literature and oratory: they were also potential patrons who could introduce their pupils to the world of the Roman aristocracy. At the same time, they were highly esteemed at the royal palace, where some of them had or would hold important offices. They could open the gates to a promising political career in both Rome and Ravenna for their protégés. This was also true of Ambrosius, who became the quaestor of Athalaric in 526/7 and the vicarius of Cassiodorus, the Praetorian prefect, in 533.26
Roman aristocratic women mostly operated behind the scenes in the political world, but they were important for the cultural life of the kingdom, and some were recognized for their learning. Ennodius recommended that his students seek out the most renowned of these women and learn from them. One of them was Barbara, who hosted Beatus as well as other pupils of Ennodius in her Roman house.27 Another was the woman Stephania:
Or if it pleases you to go to noble women, you will have the lady Barbara, the flower of Roman genius, who by the evidence of her face reveals the brightness of her blood and her discrimination. In her you will find the modest confidence and the confident modesty that come from good action; a speech so spiced with natural and artificial simplicity that neither does the charm of her address grow cold nor its splendor grow still in the harsh locutions of women; in whom the desire for what is right has so become second nature that even if she wanted to lie she could not commit the error. Her tongue gives the charm of chaste sweetness, nor is cloudiness of thought covered over by a veil of calm, bright speech; this is true of her heart as it is of her speech. May she pardon the one who claims for her the crown of women, which I grudge to her Silence; I should wish that imitation of that be held up as exemplar in all the parts of Italy, so that all women who do not yield to her teachings might at least be transformed by her example (velim illam omnibus Italiae partibus imitationem praeferri, ut quae non adquiescunt monitis formarentur exemplis). There is also Stephania, a most glorious light of the Catholic Church, the day of whose birth glows with a brighter light once you know her manner, much as the sun, the eye of the world, outshines a torch; and if you set aside the rays of her inborn behaviour, nothing will shine together brighter than her ancestry.28
Around the same time, Ennodius sent another letter to Barbara, whom he considered a close friend, encouraging her to leave the old capital for Ravenna to accept an appointment at the court: “I assure myself and my own desires, that the accepted appointment (dignitas) calls you, with your happiness and joy to the palatine office (comitatenses excubias), which may satisfy my vows. Do not, my Lady, wish that you be exempted from this work, from this burden. Let the provinces see the goods of the city of Rome, and those [women] who are educated through teachings, may be formed by examples through those good things that God conferred upon you (velim illam omnibus Italiae partibus imitationem praeferri, ut quae non adquiescunt monitis formarentur exemplis).”29 In this letter Ennodius partially repeats a concept that he also expresses in his eulogy of Barbara: an education is not just based on teaching; it finds its natural completion in examples. Barbara was an exemplum of the Roman female aristocracy. Because of her social status, her education, and her place in the cultural circles of the old capital, such a symbolic figure was certainly more than a good educator for aristocratic women.
Ennodius’s letter suggests that Barbara was summoned to the palace around 510 or shortly after.30 Surely Barbara was more compatible with the Arian Gothic court than Stephania, the Roman noble lady whom Ennodius praised as “a most glorious light of the Catholic Church.” Obviously Barbara was summoned to the royal palace with a higher position than cubicularia, although she must have been intimately close to the person(s) that she was meant to care for. Assuming that she accepted the position offered to her, it is likely that she was employed to mentor elite Gothic women, and to educate them in grammar, rhetoric, and the virtues cultivated by Roman aristocratic ladies. For whom was she brought to Ravenna? We know that Amalafrida had left Ravenna in 500, while Amalaberga departed around 510–511.31 The most likely candidate is therefore Amalasuintha, who in that year lived at the palace and was also of an age not unsuitable for her to have a tutor.
Like all the other imperial and royal family members, including Athalaric, Amalasuintha must have had many teachers, probably males as well as females, in her broad education. Though we do not have direct evidence of her curriculum or her tutors, her high level of education is clear from later documents. The Amal princess had been ruling beside her son for eight years when Cassiodorus in a letter-panegyric addressed to the Roman senators praised her intellectual qualities. His long eulogy included, but was not limited to, her knowledge of three languages, Gothic, Latin, and Greek, and of literature:
For every realm most properly reveres her. To behold her inspires awe; to hear her discourse, wonder. In what tongue is not her learning proven? She is fluent in the splendour of Greek oratory; she shines in the glory of Roman eloquence; the flow of her ancestral speech brings her glory; she surpasses all in their own languages, and is equally wonderful in each. For if it is the part of a wise person to be well acquainted with his native tongue, how should we value the wisdom which retains and faultlessly practices so many kinds of eloquence? Hence, the different races have a great and necessary safeguard, since no one needs an interpreter when addressing the ears of our wise mistress. For the envoy suffers no delay, and the appellant no damage from the slowness of his translator, since each is heard in his own words, and is answered in the speech of his nation. To this is added, as it were a glorious diadem, the priceless knowledge of literature, through which she learns the wisdom of the ancients, and the royal dignity is constantly increased.32
Her fluency in languages was beneficial for diplomacy. Amalasuintha had no need of a translator when she received foreign dignitaries.33 Though it is not specified, she may have been able to understand the Frankish language of her mother, who, like Amalafrida in Africa, probably came to Italy accompanied by an entourage of bodyguards, attendants, and palace women.34
