Eutharic

Eutharic (Latin Flavius ​​Eutharicus ; † around 523), called Ciliga , was a Visigoth and husband of the Ostrogoth queen Amalasuntha .

The Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great had arranged the connection between his daughter Amalasuntha and Eutharic in 515. Eutharic is described by the Gothic historian Jordanes as a distant relative of the Amals (Jord. Getica , 58, 298), who lived in Hispania, but this could also be targeted misinformation that Theodoric put into circulation to give dynastic legitimation receive. In 519 Eutharic held the consulate together with the Eastern Roman Emperor Justin I ( Cassiodorus dedicated his chronicle to him for this ). He was accepted by the emperor as a "son of arms" and after Theodoric's death he was to succeed him as rex and ruler of Italy and western Rome with the approval of the east .

Otherwise little is known about Eutharich. He was, however, an experienced soldier, since military qualifications were ultimately essential for leading the Exercitus Gothorum , the (east) Gothic army. He was regarded as friendly to the Romans, but also as strictly Arian- minded. Eutharich died before Theodoric († 526) and left two children, Athalarich and Matasuentha . With his unexpected death, a succession crisis broke out, as Athalaric was still a child at Theodoric's death and required guardianship.

literature

• Patrick Amory: People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997, ISBN 978-0-521-52635-7 .
• Marco Cristini, Eutarico Cillica successore di Teoderico , in Aevum 92 (2018), pp. 297-307.
• Herwig Wolfram : The Goths. From the beginning to the middle of the 6th century. Draft of a historical ethnography . 4th edition. Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-33733-3 .
• Robert Kaspersky, Propaganda in the service of Theodoric the Great . In: Frühmittelalterliche Studien 52, 1 (2018), pp. 13–42.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Massimiliano Vitiello: Motives of Germanic culture . In: Hermes . No. 113 , p. 107 .