or AMALESONTHA, the daughter of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, was born about the year 498. The sister of Clovis was her mother; and in 516 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, sent to bring him from Spain for that purpose. But he never arrived at the destined honour; for Eutharic died before his father-in-law, leaving an only son, Athalaric. 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, which he had been exceedingly careful to improve 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 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 in political discussion. 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. She relieved her subjects from some of the severer impositions of her father; but carefully retained all his laws, magistrates, and political institutions. She patronised learning with an assiduous care, by regularly paying the salaries of public teachers, and giving every encouragement to the improvement of genius. Prompted by maternal affection and a highly cultivated mind, she exerted all her ingenuity in the education of her son Athalaric. 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 murmured against the effeminate education of their prince, and insisted upon his release 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, plunging into all the extravagancies of dissolute pleasure, his mind became inspired with contempt and aversion for his virtuous mother. At the early age of sixteen, he fell a victim to his debaucheries and follies, and Amalasontha was left devoid of any legal claim to the crown. Spurning the idea of retiring to a private station, she chose her cousin Theodat as her co-regent. Theodat, a man of great ability but little principle, soon entered into an intrigue with the ambassador of the emperor Justinian, by which he agreed to remove the unfortunate queen, to make way for the union of the Byzantine and Gothic powers. He accordingly issued an order for her confinement in an island on the lake Bolsena; and in the year 535 she was strangled in the bath. Some historians ascribe this deed to the influence of the empress Theodora, whose jealousy was excited by the respect paid to Amalasontha by Justinian.