Balti dynasty

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The Balt(h)i dynasty, Baltungs, Balthings, or Balth(e)s, existed among the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe who confronted the Western Roman Empire in its declining years. The Balti took their name from the Gothic word balþa (baltha; bald or bold) It thus meant "the Bold ones" or "Bold men".

Contents

[edit] History

The Balti were considered next in worth among Gothic fighters, and next in royal dignity, to the Amali. But it was Alaric the Visigoth, a Balth, who led his people to the sacking of Rome in 410 CE and founded a dynasty that would come to rule much of Roman Gaul for a century and all of Roman Hispania for longer, establishing a kingdom in the latter that would last until early in the eighth century.

The Balti dynasty of Visigothic kings reigned from 395 to 531, comprising the following:

[edit] Family tree

The names given by Jordanes but otherwise uncorroborated are set in italics.

[edit] From Gapt to Achiulf

  1. Gapt
    1. Haimal
      1. Augis
        1. Amala
          1. Isarna
            1. Ostrogota, King by 240, [1]
              1. Kniva, King, died after 251, [2]
                1. his successor: Geberic, King by 340
              2. Hunild
                1. Athal
                  1. Achiulf – for his offspring, see below
                  2. Odulf

[edit] From Achiulf to Witiges

  1. Achiulf – see above
    1. Ansila
    2. Ediulf
    3. Wuldulf (Ataulf)
      1. Walerawans
        1. Winithar, X 376, King, [3]
          1. Vandalarius, King of the Ostrogoths,
            1. Valamir, born by 425, died 470, King 440, [4]
            2. Theodemir, King 470, died 475; married to NN; Concubine: Ereleuva born around 435/440, died after 490, [5] and [6]
              1. Theodis, died 481
              2. Theoderic the Great (Mother: Ereleuva), born by 454 in Pannonia, died 30 August 526 in Ravenna. King of the Ostrogoths in 471;[7] married in 493 to Audofleda, born around 470, died after 526, daughter of Childeric I, King of the Franks.[8]
                1. Amalasuntha, born in 496, murdered on 30 April 535 on the island of Martana in Lake Bolsena, Latium. Regent in 526; married in 515 to Eutharic, born by 480, died 522 (see below)[9] and [10]
                2. (illegitimate) Theudigotha, born around 475/80, died after 500; married Alaric II, died 507, King of the Visigoths (Balti dynasty) [11]
                  1. Amalaric, born 502, died 531, King of the Visigoths, [12]
                3. (illegitimate) Ostrogotha. born around 475/480, died after 500; married Sigismund, King of the Burgundians, died 523 [13],
              3. Theodimund, born around 450, died 479 [14]
              4. Amalafrida (Mother: Ereleuva), born around 455/460, murdered in 525; married to unknown first husband; second time in 500 to Thrasamund, King of the Vandals (born around 460, died 6 May 523) [15]
                1. (I) Theodahad, born around 480, murdered, December 537. King in November 534; married to Gothelindis [16]
                  1. (I) Theudegisklos (possibly identifiable as Theudigisel, King of the Visigoths 548/549), [17]
                  2. Theodenantha
                2. (I) Amalaberga, born by 495, died after 540; married in 510 to Hermanafrid, Prince of the Thuringians, murdered in 534 [18]
                  1. Amalafrid, born by 511, died after 540, general in Byzantine service [19]
                  2. Rodelinde married Audoin King of the Lombards, died 561
            3. Videmir, King, died 473, [20]
              1. Videmir the Younger
    4. Ermanaric, born by 266, died 376, King 350; married Sunilda, died by 375, [21] and [22]
      1. Hunimund, King
        1. Sigismund, [23]
        2. Thorismund, died shortly after 400, King by 400, [24]
          1. Berismund
            1. Wideric
              1. Eutharic, born around 480, died 522; married in 515 Amalasuntha, daughter of Theodoric the Great (see above) [25]
                1. Athalaric, born 516, died of poisoning on 2 October 534, King in 526, [26]
                2. Matasuentha, born around 518/520, died after 550; married in 537 to Witiges, King of the Ostrogoths 536-540, died 542; for a second time in 548 to Germanus Justinus, nephew of Justinian I, died in the autumn of 550, [27] and [28]
                  1. (II) Germanus posthumus, born 550/551, died 605


The above line is clearly not representing the Balti line, but the Amali line, since Amala, Ermanaric, Theodemir, Theodoric the Great, Amalafrida, Amalasuntha, Eutharic, Athalaric and Theodahad, all known to be Amalis, are mentionned there. This line is thus representing the Amal line from Gapt to Witiges, though some Balti members appear on it.

Edward Gibbon in footnote 4, Chapter 30, of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, adds:

"This illustrious race long continued to flourish in France, in the Gothic province of Septimania, or Languedoc; under the corrupted appellation of Boax; and a branch of that family afterwards settled in the kingdom of Naples (Grotius in Prolegom. ad Hist. Gothic. p. 53). The lords of Baux, near Arles, and of seventy-nine subordinate places, were independent of the counts of Provence, (Longuerue, Description de la France, tom. i. p. 357)".

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Peter J. Heather: Cassiodorus and the Rise of the Amals. Genealogy and the Goths under Hun Domination, in: Journal of Roman Studies 79 (1989), S. 103–128.
  • Peter J. Heather: Goths and Romans 332-489, Oxford 1991.
  • H. Kuhn/R. Wenskus: Amaler, in: Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, Bd. 1, S. 246–248.* Henry Bradley, The Goths: from the Earliest Times to the End of the Gothic Dominion in Spain. Second edition, 1883, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, chapter 1.

[edit] External Links