Amalasuntha
Queen of the Ostrogoths
498 – 535 A.D.

Amalasuntha, daughter of Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, born in 498m and died in 535. She was the mother of Athalaric by Eutharic. She inherited her father’s possessions, as guardian of her son; but by endeavoring to educate him in the manners and learning of the more polished Romans, she offended her nobles, who conspired against her, and obtained the government of the young prince. Athalaric was inured by them to debauchery, and he sunk under his excesses at the early age of seventeen, in the year 534. The afflicted mother knew not how to support herself against her rebellious subjects but by taking as her husband and partner on the throne her cousin Theodatus, who, to his everlasting infamy, caused her to be strangled in a bath, 535.

For learning or humanity, she had few equals in her time. She received and conversed with ambassadors from various nations without the aid of an interpreter. The emperor of Constantinople sent an army against her murderer, under the celebrated general Belisarius, who defeated and dethroned him

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Reference: Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.