Theodahad (480-1 December 536) was King of the Ostrogoths from 534 to 536, succeeding Athalaric and preceding Witiges.
Biography[]
Theodahad was born in Tauresium, Macedonia in 480, a nephew of Theoderic the Great through his mother Amalafrida. He arrived in Italy with Theoderic and was an elderly man at the time of his accession in 534. He arrested his first cousin Amalasuntha, regent from 526 to 534, while they co-ruled as king and queen of the Ostrogoths, and he imprisoned her on an island in Tuscany in 535 before having her murdered in her bath. Her assassination isolated Theodahad from his power base, and Emperor Justinian of the Byzantine Empire sent his general Belisarius to invade Italy. Witiges ordered Theodahad killed, and he succeeded him as king.