Athalaric was the King of the Ostrogoth

Ostrogoth

The Ostrogoths were a branch of the Goths , a Germanic tribe who developed a vast empire north of the Black Sea in the 3rd century AD and, in the late 5th century, under Theodoric the Great, established a Kingdom in Italy....

s in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. He was a son of Eutharic

Eutharic

Eutharic Cilliga was a Visigothic prince from Iberia who, during the early 6th century, served as Roman Consul and "son in arms" alongside the Byzantine emperor Justin I...

 and Amalasuntha

Amalasuntha

Amalasuntha was a queen of the Ostrogoths from 526 to 534....

. His maternal grandfather was Theodoric the Great

Theodoric the Great

Theodoric the Great was king of the Ostrogoths , ruler of Italy , regent of the Visigoths , and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire...

. He succeeded his grandfather as king in 526.

As Athalaric was only ten years old, the regency was assumed by his mother, Amalasuntha

Amalasuntha

Amalasuntha was a queen of the Ostrogoths from 526 to 534....

. His mother attempted to provide for him an education in the Roman tradition, but the Gothic nobles pressured her to allow them to raise him as they saw fit. As a result, Athalaric drank heavily and indulged in vicious excesses, which ruined his constitution.