Kings of the Ostrogoths

Ermanaric (d. 376) - was a King of the Gothic Greuthungi. As king, he allegedly ruled a vast empire located in today's Ukraine. The exact limits of his territory, however, are obscure, but it seems to have stretched south of the Pripet Marshes between the Don and Dniester rivers.

Valamir (not yet in Italy) - Valamir (c. 420 - c. 465) was an Ostrogothic king in the ancient country of Pannonia from 447 AD until his death. During his reign, he fought alongside the Huns against the Roman Empire and then, after Attila the Hun's death, fought against the Huns to regain Ostrogothic independence.
Valamir was the son of Vandalarius and cousin to king Thorismund. A vassal under the overlordship of the Huns, Valamir helped Attila raid the provinces of the Danube (447), and commanded the Ostrogothic contingent of Attila's force at the Battle of Chalons. With Attila's death (453), Valamir became the leader of the Goths settled in Pannonia. In the ensuing fight for independence from the Huns from 456-457 AD, he defeated and routed the sons of Attila.
A dispute concerning annual tribute caused Valamir to lead the Goths against the Romans at Constantinople from 459 - 462, when the emperor Leo I agreed to pay the Goths a gold subsidy annually. During a Scirian raid, Valamir was thrown from his horse and killed.

Amal Dynasty:

Theodemir (not yet in Italy) - Theodemir was king of the Ostrogoths of the Amal Dynasty. He ruled jointly with his two brothers, and was a vassal of Attila the Hun. He was married to Erelieva, with whom he had two children: Theodoric (454-526) and Amalafrida. When Theodemir died in 474, Theodoric succeeded him as king.

Theodoric the Great 493-526

Athalaric 526-534

Theodahad 534-536 - Theodahad (d. 536) was the King of the Ostrogoths from 534 to 536 and a nephew of Theodoric the Great through his sister. He might have arrived in Italy with Theodoric and was an elderly man at the time of his succession. Witiges ordered him killed, and succeeded him as king.
In L. Sprague de Camp's alternative history novel Lest Darkness Fall, Theodahad is portrayed mostly as feeble-minded, vain, craven monarch, uninterested in the affairs of the State and too infatuated with his own literary endeavours

Later kings:

Witiges 536-540 - Witiges or Vitiges (d. 540) was King of the Ostrogoths from 536 to 540. He succeeded to the throne of Italy in the midst of the Gothic War, as Belisarius had quickly captured Sicily the previous year and was currently in southern Italy at the head of the forces of Justinian I, the Eastern Roman Emperor. Witiges was the husband of Amalasuntha's only surviving child, Mathesuentha, a marriage designed to bolster his claim to kingship. The panegyric upon the wedding in 536 was delivered by Cassiodorus, the praetorian prefect, and survives, a traditionally Roman form of rhetoric that set the Gothic dynasty in a flatteringly Roman light. Witiges had Theodahad murdered after the imprisonment and death of his mother-in-law. Justinian's general Belisarius took both Witiges and Mathesuentha as captives to Constantinople, and Witiges died there, without any children. After his death Mathesuentha married the patrician Germanus, a nephew of Justinian I by his sister Vigilantia.

Ildibad 540-541 - Ildibad (Sometimes rendered Hildebad or Heldebadus) (d. 541) was a king of the Ostrogoths in Italy, being chosen to replace Witiges, who had been engaged in complicated schemes with Belisarius and had left Ravenna. Ildibald reigned for only about a year before being killed by a Gepid at a palace banquet. After a brief interlude under Eraric, he was succeeded by his nephew Totila.
Ildibad was actually a Visigoth, a nephew of one of the Visigothic kings in Spain.

Eraric 541 - Eraric (d. 541) was briefly King of the Ostrogoths. He was killed by a member of his royal guard.

Baduela 541-552 (also known as Totila)

Theia 552-553 (also known as Teiam or Teja - Teia (d. 552 or 553), also known as Teja, Theia, Thila, Thela, Teias, was the last Ostrogothic king in Italy.
Apparently a military officer serving under Totila, Teia was chosen as successor after Totila was slain in the Battle of Taginae (also known as the Battle of Busta Gallorum.) On his way fleeing to southern Italy, he gathered support from prominent figures within Totila's armies including Scipuar, Gundulf (Indulf), Gibal and Ragnaris to make his last stand against the Byzantine eunuch general Narses at the Battle of Mons Lactarius, south of present-day Naples, in October 552 or early 553. The Ostrogothic army was defeated once again. Teia was slain, his brother Aligern surrendered. Scipuar and Gibal were likely also killed. Gundulf and Ragnaris escaped from the field; the latter was mortally wounded after a failed assassination by an agent of Narses.
With that defeat, organized Ostrogothic resistance ended. Although the last attested Gothic noble Widin revolted in northern Italy in 550s and was captured in 561 or 562, the Ostrogoths would fade into obscurity.

The line ended.

TOP