Athalaric (; 5162 October 534) was the
king of the Ostrogoths in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
between 526 and 534. He was a son of
Eutharic and
Amalasuntha, the youngest daughter of
Theoderic the Great
Theodoric (or Theoderic) the Great (454 – 30 August 526), also called Theodoric the Amal ( got, , *Þiudareiks; Greek: , romanized: ; Latin: ), was king of the Ostrogoths (471–526), and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy ...
,
whom Athalaric succeeded as king in 526.
As Athalaric was only ten years old, the regency was assumed by his mother,
Amalasuntha. His mother attempted to provide for him an education in the Roman tradition, but the Gothic nobles pressured her to allow them to raise him as they saw fit. As a result, Athalaric drank heavily and indulged in vicious excesses, which ruined his constitution.
References
Sources
*
Further reading
Letters of Cassiodorus, Book VIIIfrom
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
Procopius 'Wars' Book V trans. H. P. Dewing
* Peter Heather, ''The Goths'' (Oxford, Blackwell, 1996).
516 births
534 deaths
6th-century kings of Italy
Ostrogothic kings
Amali dynasty
Ancient child rulers
6th-century monarchs in Europe
6th-century Ostrogothic people
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