[Sidenote: Amalasuentha is deposed and imprisoned by Theodahad, April
30, 535.]

The new Queen persuaded herself, and tried to persuade her cousin,
that this ignominious sentence had in some way put the subject of it
straight with the world, and had smoothed his pathway to the throne.
She trusted to his gratitude and his tremendous oaths for her own
undisturbed position at the helm of the State, but she found before
many months of the joint reign had passed that the reed upon which she
was leaning was about to pierce her hand. Only four letters, it will
be seen, of the following collection were written by order of
Amalasuentha after the commencement of the joint reign. Soon Theodahad
felt himself strong enough to hurl from the throne the woman who had
dared to compel him to draw back the boundary of his Tuscan
_latifundium._ The relations of the three noblemen whom Amalasuentha
had put to death gathered gladly round him, eager to work out the
blood-feud; and by their help he slew many of the strongest supporters
of the Queen, and shut her up in prison in a little lonely island upon
the lake of Vulsinii. This event took place on the 30th of April, 535,
not quite seven months after the death of Athalaric[63].

[Footnote 63: The dates of the death of Athalaric and deposition of
Amalasuentha are given by Agnellus in his Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae
Ravennatis, p. 322 (in the edition comprised in the Monumenta
Germaniae Historica).]

[Sidenote: Embassy of Peter.]

[Sidenote: Death of Amalasuentha.]