lover, and Eutharic, her husband, played the most important roles in the punishment of the Christians of Ravenna, we may wonder whether this story cemented the image of Amalasuintha as an anti-Catholic par excellence in the tradition of Gregory of Tours.118
Shortly after the events at Ravenna, sometime between 522 and 523, Eutharic died of causes that are unknown to us. Strangely, none of our authors thought that the event was worthy of report; Jordanes and Procopius briefly mention his death, but only in retrospect and while referring to later events. Cassiodorus in the History of the Goths, which he completed about a decade later, may even have been silent on this event, whose impact on the Amal family was bad.119 Eutharic’s death may have been a relief to many Roman Catholics, but it plunged the Gothic court into chaos. The ambitious plans Theoderic cherished for his son-in-law had collapsed, and his goal of integrating the two Gothic peoples was lost.120 The king was by now almost seventy years old, and once again without an adult heir. His thirty years of planning to ensure a successor to the throne had resulted in a widow with a five-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl.
Theoderic now had to change his strategy again. He decided to rely once more, and this time in an even stronger way, on his daughter Amalasuintha. Whether or not she already held the title of regina formally, he now opened the gates of royal power to her. Over the years Amalasuintha had gained political experience and developed the capacity to rule. Living beside her father in the stimulating court environment of Ravenna, and through her seven-year marriage to the designated heir of the kingdom, she had silently entered the world of politics and diplomacy. Her enviable level of education and her experience at the palace had made her a bicultural figure: she was both Gothic and Roman in her way of thought and action. The combination of these elements made her, though a woman, a candidate uniquely suited to a position of power that was new to the Gothic world.
Tragedies and Tension at the Palace
In the three or four years that separate the death of Eutharic from that of Theoderic, Ostrogothic Italy experienced a dramatic decline after thirty years of political and diplomatic success.121 Most of the matrimonial alliances and diplomacy which Theoderic had built since the late 480s/early 490s, and which had made his kingdom a protagonist in continental Europe and in the western Mediterranean world, were compromised within a short period. The disappearance at the moment of Eutharic’s death (ca. 522) of Theoderic’s long-held plans to unify the two Gothic peoples was only the beginning.
In 522, Theoderic’s grandson Sigeric was assassinated by order of his own father, Sigismund, as Gregory of Tours and Marius of Avenches relate.122 The Catholic Burgundian king was trying to establish an alliance with Justin against the Goths and the Franks. His Amal wife, Theoderic’s daughter Ostrogotho Areagni, had died some time earlier, and he was now remarried with two children.123 According to Gregory of Tours, it was Sigismund’s new wife who encouraged him to murder his own child by claiming that Sigeric was planning to remove him and ultimately to expand his kingdom into Italy.124 Of course, Gregory’s tales are often fantastical, and it is difficult if not sometimes impossible to separate fact from fiction in his account. But if any thread of truth runs through the lines of this story, we may wonder whether Sigeric was at this point Theoderic’s backup plan for succession, and whether in 523, when the Amal king sent his army with the Goth Tuluin on an expedition against the Burgundians, one of Theoderic’s intentions was vengeance for the murder of his grandson.125 Tuluin seems to have fought against Sigismund on the side of the Franks of Chlodomer in order to protect the interest of the Gothic kingdom. However, Chlodomer’s expedition ended with its defeat in 524 at Vézeronce, where the king died.
On 6 May 523 the Vandal king Thrasamund also died. His successor, Hilderic, who was none other than the son of Eudocia and grandson of Valentinian III, restored Catholicism in Africa, which until then had been persecuted. After the death in 511 of Gesalic, who had sought help from the Vandals, the increasing power of Theoderic over Visigothic Spain may have started a process of deterioration of the relationships between the Vandal and the Ostrogothic kingdoms.126 As soon as Thrasamund died, Amalafrida was no longer a guarantee of good relationships between Italy and Africa. The queen escaped to Capsa, where she tried to get help from the Moors, enemies of the Vandals who in previous years had defeated Thrasamund.127 Under the pretext that she and the Goths around her were conspiring against the new kingdom, Hilderic massacred her following of noble Goths and imprisoned the queen; she died sometime in 526.128 This horrible, unexpected news must have brought Theoderic close to panic. For strategic reasons he decided not to start a war against the Vandals, but he did order the building of a fleet.129 This may have upset both the empire and the Vandals, who were at this point on good terms with each other, though they failed to intimidate Theoderic: “The Greeks do not have any reason to argue with us, nor the Africans to despise us.”130 It was because of his initial intention to face the Vandals, or perhaps to contain the threat of the Franks, that Theoderic in 525/6 ordered his Praetorian prefect, Abundantius, to provide supplies and ships for the archers led by the saio Tata, who had been sent to reinforce the Gothic army commanded by Count Wiliarius.131 Only shortly afterward, at the beginning of Athalaric’s reign, Cassiodorus received a military command for the protection of the coasts.132
In Spain things were not going well either. Theoderic’s other grandson, Amalaric, was still under the guardianship of Theudis, who over the years had increased his level of power to the point that he was practically ruling himself, against Theoderic’s will.133 The dream of a reunification of the two Gothic peoples was now over, and Theoderic was progressively losing control over the Visigothic kingdom.
While the situation in external politics was becoming more and more bleak, things in Italy took an even more complicated turn shortly after Eutharic’s death. Radical changes in the Mediterranean and European political landscape, together with the death of the presumptive heir to the kingdom, may have given Justin a pretext to reconsider his approval of Theoderic’s succession; supporting a new heir may have not been in Justin’s plans. We know that in 524–525 two men from two of the most illustrious families of Rome, Boethius and his father-in-law, Symmachus, were executed. These men had reached the peak of their prestige in 522, when the two sons of Boethius became consuls.134 As was traditional, the event was celebrated with circus games and triumphal parades, organized in grand style by Boethius himself, who also thanked Theoderic in the Senate House with a panegyric.135 A few months later Boethius was appointed master of the offices for the following year. Once in Ravenna, however, he found himself entangled in accusations of conspiracy against Theoderic. Members of the king’s entourage had accused Albinus of corresponding with Emperor Justin to conspire against the king, acting, they alleged, on behalf of the Senate. Barnish has intriguingly speculated that “the letter of Albinus to the east concerned the possible regency or succession of Theodahad, and the libertas Romana allegedly hoped for by Boethius involved a senatorial share in the choice of Rome’s ruler.”136 It is certain that Boethius defended Albinus and the Roman Senate, and eventually the accusation fell upon him too. Theoderic trusted the accusers, strongly relying on his entourage. Boethius was first imprisoned and then, in the following year, executed.137
While it remains unclear how much truth there was in the allegations against Albinus, this story took place at a time when waves of tragic news from the other kings were reaching Italy. The Roman senators employed at the palace were informed of the changes in the international scenario, and as the master of the offices, it was Boethius who introduced the king to the legates bearing all this news.138 The international role of the Gothic kingdom was weakening, and it is possible that some senators thought to take advantage of the situation, looking to the empire as the alternative. The affair of Albinus had put the whole Senate at risk of an accusation en masse; shortly before his death, Boethius claimed that the king desired “the common ruin” of the senators.139
At first, Theoderic did not regret his decision to have Boethius killed; a short time later he also ordered the execution of Symmachus, who
