Vitiges (also known as Vitigis, Vitigo, Witigis, Witiges, Wittigis or Wittigeis, and in Old Norse as Vigo) (died 542) was king of Ostrogothic Italy from 536 to 540. Known as a veteran of King Theodoric’s campaigns, he was a seasoned commander & therefore after the fall of the Amal dynasty he succeeded to the throne of Italy just after the Roman capture of Naples. This was because Belisarius had quickly captured Sicily the previous year and was in southern Italy at the head of the forces of Justinian I, the Eastern Roman Emperor.
Vitiges was the husband of Queen Amalaswintha's only surviving child, Mataswintha; therefore, his royal legitimacy was based on this marriage. The panegyric upon the wedding in 536 was delivered by Cassiodorus, the praetorian prefect, and survives, a traditionally Roman form of rhetoric that set the Gothic dynasty in a flatteringly Roman light. Soon after he was made king, Vitiges had his predecessor Theodahad murdered. Theodahad had enraged the Goths because he failed to send any assistance to Naples when it was besieged by the Byzantines, led by Belisarius.
