Amal dynasty

The Amali were one of the leading dynasties of the Goths, a Germanic people who confronted the Roman Empire in its declining years in the west. They were also called the Amals, Amaler, or Amalings and were at one point considered highest in rank among Gothic fighters and royal dignity. According to Gothic legend, the Amali were descended from an ancient hero whose deeds earned him the title of Amala or "mighty."

However, the Goths branched into two groups around the year 200: the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. And by 395 their histories had become significantly separated. Edward Gibbon writes, in the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapter 31, footnote 160):

"the true hereditary right to the Gothic sceptre was vested in the Amali; but those princes, who were the vassals of the Huns, commanded the tribes of the Ostrogoths in some distant parts of Germany or Scythia."

Therefore, in this vacuum, it would be their rivals, the Balti dynasty, predominant among the Visigoths in Italy and Gaul, that would take the Visigothic leadership over all Germanic peoples and rise to become the supreme group of royal power and dignity. For it was Alaric the Visigoth, a member of the Balti dynasty, who would be the leader of his people in the sacking of Rome in 410 CE.

This success, and the dynasty of kings Alaric created, heightened tensions between the two families, leading to the Amali usurping the Visigothic throne in 415, making Sigeric king. But Sigeric's reign lasted but seven days before he was assassinated and the Balti dynasty resumed a powerful rule that didn't end until 531.

In light of this, it can be generally said that, beginning in 395, the Amali was the royal house of the Ostrogoths and the Balti was the royal house of the Visigoths, with the Visigoths eventually surpassing the prestige of the once highly regarded Amali .

At least, two families claimed they had descended from Amali. First family was Billungs, Dukes of Saxony. They were also known as Amelungs or von Ömlingen. Another family was Solovjovs, Barons of Russian Empire from 1727 (in German speaking sources known as von Solowhoff or Solowhoff von Greutungen). Solovjovs claimed Ermanaric was their ancestor.

Kings

• Theodemir, until 474
• Theodoric the Great, 474–526
• Athalaric, 526–534
• Theodahad, 534–536

References

• Bradley, Henry. The Goths: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Gothic Dominion in Spain. 2nd ed. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1883.