youngest daughter of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, was born about the year 498. The sister of Clovis was her mother, and in 515, she married Eutharic the only remaining heir of the legal race of the Amali. Her father having formed the design of making him his successor, he sent to bring him from Spain for that purpose. But he never arrived at the destined honour; for Eutharic died previous to his father-in-law, and his only son Athalaric, was also bereft of his grandfather at the age of eight years. The well-known abilities of Amalasontha induced Theodoric to place Athalaric, to whom he had left the kingdom of Italy, under the care of his mother. This princess inherited an ample share of her father's talents; and her father had been exceedingly careful to improve these natural endowments by means of a liberal education. She became a great proficient in the philosophy and morals of that age, and with equal elegance and grace she could converse in the Greek, Latin, and Gothic languages. Nor were her talents merely qualified to adorn private life: she displayed them in the administration of public justice, and political discussion. Her first efforts were in behalf of the injured children of Boethius and Symmachus, whom she reinstated in the possession of their inheritance. When the chiefs of the Goths were strongly inclined to treat the Romans as a conquered people, she mildly restrained their violent oppression and their ungovernable rapacity. Adorning the female character, she relieved her subjects from some of the severer impositions of her father; but carefully retained all his laws, magistrates, and political institutions. Having herself tasted of the sweets of literature, and experienced its advantages, she patronized learning with an affluous care, by regularly paying the salaries of public teachers, and giving every encouragement to the improvement of genius. Her peaceable deportment towards the neighbouring princes forms an amiable feature in her character. Both with the imperial court, and with all the other powers, she lived upon agreeable terms, and thus universal honour and prosperity prevailed. Both in consequence of maternal affection and the high cultivation of her mind, she exerted all her ingenuity in the education of her orphan son. Unfortunately, however, both for the mother and the son, neither the general character of the Gothic nation, nor the wayward inclinations of the boy, seconded her laudable endeavours. The Gothic nobles had just commenced their murmurs against the soft effeminate manner in which their prince was educating, when, upon a certain day, the youth having undergone some kind maternal chastisement, rushed into the room where some of the nobles were assembled with the tears streaming from his eyes. Informed of the cause of his distress, the wrath of the nobles suddenly arose, and in a violent burst of passion they inflicted upon the immediate release of their prince from the bondage of learning and from the restraints of a mother. The unfortunate youth was thus dragged from the habitation of learning, prudence, and virtue, and plunged into all the extravagancies of dissolute pleasure, and his mind inspired with contempt and aversion to his virtuous mother.

It was impossible for humanity to bear this insult and high injury without opposition; therefore, in the first effusions of her resentment she seized three of the principal persons concerned in this transaction, and confined them in one of the remotest parts of Italy. But the efforts of one or of a few individuals, are never adequate to the task of counteracting the general efforts of a nation, for the party whose sentiments were opposed to hers, grew daily in magnitude and strength, to such a degree that Amalasontha formed furious resolutions of sheltering herself under the protection of Justinian. After a correspondence had been carried on to prepare for this event, and when she was about to fail for that place, she determined to make one bold effort to regain her absolute power. With this view she caused the three persons who were in confinement to be secretly affiliated; and this action re-established her authority, although it augmented the public hatred. But another cause of disquiet soon arose. At the early age of sixteen, her son fell a victim to his debaucheries and follies, and she was left devoid of any legal claim to the crown. The accomplished and ambitious Amalasontha formed the idea of retiring to a private station, and formed the bold design of sharing the throne with Theodorus her cousin. She had sufficient penetration to perceive that the dispositions of that youth were indolent and weak, and consequently she hoped still to remain at the helm of government. But the future fortune of that accomplished woman, demonstrates to posterity the danger of confiding in human weakness, where the principles of honour and justice and virtue are wanting. Theodorus issued an order for her confinement in an island in the lake Bolfena; and in the year 535 she was strangled in the bath. Some historians ascribe this action to the influence of the empress Theodora, who was seized with jealousy in consequence of the respect shown her by Justinian.

(Gener. Biog.)