302 Cooper
reason to think that their allies would retaliate.21 What made her choose her
elderly cousin Theodahad as an ally in this situation? She was well aware of his
failings, since his neighbours in Tuscany had brought him to her for judgement
for violent and unlawful actions, including wrongfully seizing both private and
crown land.22 We come now to the central question: Why did Amalasuentha
choose Theodahad as her partner after the death of Athalaric in October 534?
Theodahad was known for his love of letters rather than his military prow-
ess, and there was no shortage of noble Goths with strong military credentials
whom Amalasuentha could have married or otherwise cultivated as allies.23
It should be noted that marriage was not her only option. Ostrogothic
royal women were capable of acting as political and even military players in
their own right, though it was certainly a high-risk strategy. A case in point
is Amalafrida, sister of Theoderic and mother of Amalasuentha’s future
consort Theodahad, who went to Africa in 500 to marry to the Vandal king
Thrasamund.24 Procopius tells us that Amalafrida received the strategic
Sicilian city of Lilybaeum as a wedding gift, and when she arrived in Africa for
her marriage she was accompanied by an entourage of 1000 Gothic nobles and
5000 Gothic soldiers in addition.25 On Thrasamund’s death in 523, Amalafrida
may have tried to put her forces into play against Thrasamund’s successor
Hilderic. According to Procopius himself, the queen was accused of plotting a
revolt against the new Vandal king.26 Whether the accusation was true or false,
it reflects a contemporary perception that it would have been plausible for her
to do so. In the end, however, she was captured and died in prison.27
Amalasuentha had inherited a number of allies as a result of the marriage
diplomacy of her father Theoderic, though by the time of his death many
of his alliances had lapsed or been overturned. During the early years of his
reign Theoderic had sought alliances with as many of the other post-Roman
kingdoms of the former western empire as possible. Through her mother
Audofleda, the sister of Clovis I, Amalasuentha could in theory hope to claim
support from the Franks, while the Visigothic king Amalaric was the son of
Theodegotha, one of Amalasuentha’s two older half-sisters by an anonymous
21 Procopius, Wars 5.3.
22 Procopius, Wars 6.1.
23 On the options open to Amalasuentha at the death of her son, see Vitiello, Theodahad,
59–65.
24 Conant, Staying Roman, pp. 38–40.
25 Procopius, Wars 3.8.12–13.
26 Procopius, Wars 3.9.3–8.
27 Halsall, Barbarian Migrations, pp. 295–6.