Theodahad
| Theodahad | |
|---|---|
| King of the Ostrogoths | |
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| Reign | from 534 to 536 |
| Predecessor | Athalaric |
| Successor | Witiges |
| Born | c. 480 Tauresium |
| Died | 536 |
| Mother | Amalafrida |
Theodahad (born c. 480 in Tauresium[1] – died 536) was the King of the Ostrogoths from 534 to 536 and a nephew of Theodoric the Great through his sister Amalafrida.[2]
He might have arrived in Italy with Theodoric and was an elderly man at the time of his succession. Massimilliano Vitiello states the name "Theodahad" is a compound of 'people' and 'conflict'.[3]
He arrested Amalaswintha, queen of the Ostrogoths from 526 to 534, and imprisoned her on an island in Lake Bolsena.[4]
Political instability within the Ostrogothic kingdom serves as a pretext to Byzantine general Belisarius to intervene in Sicily and Italy, at the service of the Emperor Justinian, causing the 'Gothic Wars. "
Witiges ordered him killed, and succeeded him as king.
Theodahad had at least two children with a woman named Gudeliva: Theodegisclus and Theodenantha.
In fiction
Thiudehad appears as a character in the time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall, by L. Sprague de Camp.
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Jordanes names Amalfridam germanam suam [Theoderici] as the mother of Theodehadi qui postea rex fuit
- ↑ Massimiliano Vitiello, Theodahad, A Platonic King at the Collapse of Ostrogothic Italy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014. p. 15,
- ↑ Jordanes, LIX, p. 51, and Herwig Wolfram (1998), p. 338
External links
- Theodahad in Medieval Lands
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | King of the Ostrogoths 534–536 |
Succeeded by Witiges |
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Kings of Italy between 476 and 1556
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| Non-dynastic |
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| Ostrogoths | ||
| Lombards |
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| Carolingians |
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| Non-dynastic (title disputed 887–933) |
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| Kingdom of Italy in the Holy Roman Empire (962–1556) |
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