Mataswintha

Mataswintha
Mataswintha
Queen consort of the Ostrogoths
Tenure	536–540
Born	518
Spouse	Vitiges; Germanus
Issue	Germanus
House	Amali
Father	Eutharic
Mother	Amalasuintha
	Show more

Mataswintha, also spelled Matasuintha, Matasuentha, Mathesuentha, Matasvintha,^[1] or Matasuntha,^[2] (fl. 550) was a daughter of Eutharic and Amalasuintha. She was a sister of Athalaric, King of the Ostrogoths. Their maternal grandparents were Theodoric the Great and Audofleda.^[3]

According to the Getica by Jordanes,

"Eutharic, who married Amalasuentha...begat Athalaric and Mathesuentha. Athalaric died in the years of his childhood, and Mathesuentha married Vitiges, to whom she bore no child. Both of them were taken together by Belisarius to Constantinople. When Vitiges passed from human affairs, Germanus the patrician, a cousin of the Emperor Justinian, 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 to Patrick Amory, she was forced to marry Witigis after the murder of her mother, and her cousin Theodahadus.^[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 the patricius Germanus, a leading senator in the reign of Emperor Maurice (r. 582–602). Germanus' daughter married Maurice's eldest son Theodosius.^[6]^[7] Michael Whitby identifies the younger Germanus with Germanus, a son-in-law of Tiberius II Constantine and Ino Anastasia.^[8]

In fiction

Mataswintha is the subject of an opera by Xaver Scharwenka, composed in 1891 and 1892, and premiered in 1894. Georgine von Januschofsky sang the title role in 1897.^[9] She was portrayed by Harriet Andersson in the 1968 film Kampf um Rom. As "Mathaswentha", she appears as a character in the time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall, by L. Sprague de Camp, where Wittigis tries to force her to marry him.^[10]

References

^ 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 Series 19 (1959), pp. 119–130.
^ Patrick Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554, p. 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, p. 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.
^ L. Sprague de Camp, Lest Darkness Fall, pp. 117–119.

Bibliography

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 (in Italian). Vol. 72: Massimo–Mechetti. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-88-12-00032-6.

[1] Felix Dahn (1884). "Matasvintha". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 20. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 581–582.

[2] Philip Grierson, "Matasuntha or Mastinas: A Reattribution", The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society, Sixth Series 19 (1959), pp. 119–130.

[3] Patrick Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554, p. 452.

[4] Jordanes, "The Origin and Deeds of the Goths", Chapter 14. 1915 translation by Charles Christopher Mierow

[5] Patrick Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554, p. 452.

[6] Martindale & Morris (1980), pp. 505–506

[7] Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), pp. 528, 531–532

[Whitby7-8] Whitby (1988), p. 7

[9] "A New Opera Sung". New York Times. April 2, 1897. p. 6.

[10] L. Sprague de Camp, Lest Darkness Fall, pp. 117–119.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

Authority control databases
International	VIAF GND
People	Italian People Deutsche Biographie

Mataswintha

Hub talks

Mataswintha

Mataswintha

Mataswintha

Hub overview

Add your contribution

Inside this hub

Media Collections

Timelines

Articles

Notes collections

Notes

Days in Chronicle

Root Wikipedia Article

Mataswintha

Key Information

In fiction

References

Bibliography

Add your contribution

Related Hubs