Mataswintha, also spelledMatasuintha,Matasuentha,Mathesuentha,Matasvintha,[1] orMatasuntha,[2] (fl. 550) was a daughter ofEutharic andAmalasuintha. She was a sister ofAthalaric, King of theOstrogoths. Their maternal grandparents wereTheodoric the Great andAudofleda.[3]
| Mataswintha | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of the Ostrogoths | |
| Tenure | 536 - 540 |
| Born | 518 |
| Spouse | Vitiges Germanus |
| Issue | Germanus |
| House | Amali |
| Father | Eutharic |
| Mother | Amalasuintha |
According to theGetica byJordanes,
"Eutharic, who married Amalasuentha...begat Athalaric and Mathesuentha. Athalaric died in the years of his childhood, and Mathesuentha marriedVitiges, to whom she bore no child. Both of them were taken together byBelisarius toConstantinople. When Vitiges passed from human affairs,Germanus the patrician, a cousin of the EmperorJustinian, took Mathesuentha in marriage and made her a Patrician Ordinary. And of her he begat a son, also called Germanus. But upon the death of Germanus, she determined to remain a widow."[4]
According toPatrick Amory, she was forced to marry Witigis after the murder of her mother, and her cousinTheodahadus.[5]
Her son Germanus was born following the death of his father (late 550/early 551). Nothing further is known of him with certainty, although he can possibly be identified with thepatriciusGermanus, a leading senator in the reign of EmperorMaurice (r. 582–602). Germanus' daughter married Maurice's eldest son Theodosius.[6][7] Michael Whitby identifies the younger Germanus withGermanus, a son-in-law ofTiberius II Constantine andIno Anastasia.[8]
In fiction
editMataswintha is the subject of an opera byXaver Scharwenka, composed in 1891 and 1892, and premiered in 1894.Georgine von Januschofsky sang the title role in 1897.[9] She was portrayed byHarriet Andersson in the 1968 filmKampf um Rom.As "Mathaswentha", she appears as a character in the time travel novelLest Darkness Fall, byL. Sprague de Camp, where Wittigis tries to force her to marry him.[10]
References
edit- ^Felix Dahn (1884). "Matasvintha".Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 20. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 581–582.
- ^Philip Grierson, "Matasuntha or Mastinas: A Reattribution",The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society, Sixth Series19 (1959), pp. 119–130.
- ^Patrick Amory,People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554, page 452.
- ^Jordanes, "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths", Chapter 14. 1915 translation by Charles Christopher Mierow
- ^Patrick Amory,People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489-554, page 452.
- ^Martindale & Morris (1980), pp. 505–506
- ^Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 528, 531–532
- ^Whitby (1988), p. 7
- ^"A New Opera Sung".New York Times. April 2, 1897. p. 6 – via ProQuest.
- ^L. Sprague de Camp,Lest Darkness Fall, pages 117-119.
Bibliography
edit- Enßlin, Wilhelm:Matasuntha.(in German) In:Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). Vol. XIV,2, Stuttgart 1930, col. 2180.
- Hartmann, Martina (2009).Die Königin im frühen Mittelalter (in German). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer,ISBN 978-3-17-018473-2, pp. 34–36.
- Krautschick, Stefan (2001), "Matasuntha",Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 19, pp. 432–433
- Martindale, John R.; Morris, John (1980),The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire - Volume II, AD 395–527, Cambridge University Press,ISBN 978-0-521-20159-9
- Martindale, John R.; Jones, A. H. M.; Morris, John (1992),The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire - Volume III, AD 527–641, Cambridge University Press,ISBN 0-521-20160-8
- Whitby, Michael. (1988),The Emperor Maurice and his historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan warfare, Oxford University Press,ISBN 0-19-822945-3
- Wirth, Gerhard[in German] (1993). "Matasuntha".Lexikon des Mittelalters, VI: Lukasbilder bis Plantagenêt (in German). Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler. col. 375.ISBN 3-7608-8906-9.
- Wolfram, Herwig (2009)."Matasunta".Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 72: Massimo–Mechetti (in Italian). Rome:Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. pp. 108–109.ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.