The Heroine and the Historian 297
Procopius suggests that war between Ravenna and Constantinople was not
inevitable. During his lifetime Theoderic had presided over a kingdom well
integrated, both culturally and politically, with the Roman state. Indeed it
had been at the emperor Zeno’s suggestion that Theoderic conquered Italy.2
Theoderic in turn had done everything in his power to ensure that Goths and
Romans lived peaceably together in a society whose outstanding characteristic
was civilitas: “He preserved the laws on a sure basis, he protected the land and
kept it safe from the barbarians dwelling round about, and attained the high-
est possible degree of wisdom and manliness.”3 Procopius wants to establish
a baseline of success against which the failure of Theoderic’s successors can
be measured. “Although in name Theoderic was a usurper, yet in fact he was
as truly an emperor as any who have distinguished themselves in this office
from the beginning.”4 Theoderic had also thought carefully about the future.
Looking ahead to old age and having no sons, he had educated his daughters
well and married them carefully. For Amalasuentha he chose Eutharic, about
whom little is known before his marriage. By 519 he had been accepted by
both Theoderic and the emperor Justin as a worthy successor to her father’s
crown. In the same year, Eutharic held the consulship jointly with Theoderic,
and Amalasuentha produced a healthy son, Athalaric. But Eutharic died in 522
or 523 while their son was still small (see Figure 12.1 for a genealogy of the
Amal family).
Procopius nods to this background by mentioning that Amalasuentha’s
husband was already dead when Theoderic himself died in 526. Now the
well-being of the ten-year-old Athalaric, Amalasuentha’s son and Theoderic’s
grandson, depended on his mother’s ability to rule on his behalf in a way that
honoured her father’s legacy. She had already begun to raise the boy in a way
befitting a Roman man of letters. But, Procopius tells us, she quickly earned the
enmity of a powerful faction among the Gothic nobles, who wanted to steer
the boy-king away from the book learning of his chosen tutors and towards the
wholesome violence of the Gothic army. “For letters, they said, are far removed
from manliness, and the teaching of old men results for the most part in a
2 Procopius, Wars 5.1, ed. Dewing.
3 Procopius, Wars 5.1.27: “δικαιοσύνης τε γὰρ ὑπερφυῶς ἐπεμελήσατο καὶ τοὺς νόμους ἐν τῷ βεβαίῳ
διεσώσατο, ἔκ τε βαρβάρων τῶν περιοίκων τὴν χώραν ἀσφαλῶς διεφύλαξε, ξυνέσεώς τε καὶ ἀνδρίας
ἐς ἄκρον μάλιστα.”
4 Procopius, Wars 5.1.29: “ἦν τε ὁ Θευδέριχος λόγῳ μὲν τύραννος, ἔργῳ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἀληθὴς τῶν ἐν
ταύτῃ τῇ τιμῇ τὸ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ηὐδοκιμηκότων οὐδενὸς ἧσσον, ἔρως τε αὐτοῦ ἔν τε Γότθοις καὶ Ἰταλιώταις
πολὺς ἤκμασε, καὶ ταῦτα ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρωπείου τρόπου.”