Gudeliva

Gudeliva was the wife of the Amaler Theodahad when Amalasuntha brought him up to be co-regent in 534 and thus brought about his elevation to King of the Ostrogoths . Her name, which is the feminine form of the occupied Gothic name Gudilub , identifies her as a Gotin. However, that is all that is known about their origins. It is also not certain that she was the mother of the two children known to Theodahad.

However, it had a certain “political” meaning. This emerges from the fact that when the Treaty of 536 between the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I and Theodahad, through which the latter gave up his kingship, the signature of his queen (Gudeliva) was required. Her two letters in 535 to Theodora , wife of Justinian I, which Cassiodorus included in his collection Variae (epistulae) (Book X, 21 and X, 24), are also interesting . Cassiodorus headed it Theodorae Avgvstae Gvdeliva Regina , thereby emphasizing the rank of the writer. With the letters Gudeliva tried with a great deal of flattery to support her husband's letters at the same time.

Whether she was in jealous competition with Amalasuntha and whether she drove the politics of her hesitant husband, yes determined, as some historians believe, must remain open.

literature

• Berthold Rubin : The Age of Justinian. Volume 2, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1995.
• Massimiliano Vitiello: Theodahad: A Platonic king at the collapse of Ostrogothic Italy. University of Toronto Press, Toronto / Buffalo / London 2014.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Piergiuseppe Scardigli : The Goths. Language and culture. CH Beck, Munich 1973, p. 290.
2. ^ Prokopios of Caesarea , Der Gotenkrieg I, 6.
3. ^ Massimiliano Vitiello: Theodahad: A Platonic king at the collapse of Ostrogothic Italy. University of Toronto Press, Toronto / Buffalo / London 2014, p. 101.
4. ↑ Berthold Rubin: The Age of Justinian. Volume 2, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1995, pp. 80-84