A gold tremissis in the name of Justinian I, minted by Totila.
King of the Ostrogoths
Reign
541–1 July 552
Coronation
541
Predecessor
Eraric
Successor
Teia
Died
1 July 552 Taginae, Ostrogothic Kingdom
Religion
Arianism
v
t
e
Wars of Justinian I
Iberian War
Thannuris
Mindouos
Dara
Satala
Callinicum
Martyropolis
Vandalic War and Moorish Wars
Ad Decimum
Tricamarum
Mammes
Bourgaon
Carthage
Membresa
Babosis and Zerboule
Cillium
Sufetula
Marta
Fields of Cato
Gothic War
Panormus
Scardon
1st Naples
1st Rome
Ariminum
Urbinus
Urviventus
Auximus
Ravenna
Treviso
Verona
Faventia
Mucellium
2nd Naples
Otranto
2nd Rome
3rd Rome
Sena Gallica
Taginae
Mons Lactarius
Volturnus
Sasanian war of 540–562
Nisibis
Sisauranon
Anglon
Edessa
Lazic War
1st Petra
2nd Petra
3rd Petra
1st Archaeopolis
Cotais
Telephis–Ollaria
2nd Archaeopolis
Onoguris (3rd Archaeopolis)
Phasis
Tzacher
Other
Conquest of Spania
Anastasian Wall
Melantias
Totila, original name Baduila (died 1 July 552), was the penultimate King of the Ostrogoths, reigning from 541 to 552 AD. A skilled military and political leader, Totila reversed the tide of the Gothic War, recovering by 543 almost all the territories in Italy that the Eastern Roman Empire had captured from his Kingdom in 540.
A relative of Theudis, sword-bearer of Theodoric the Great and king of the Visigoths, Totila was elected king by Ostrogothic nobles in the autumn of 541 after King Witigis had been carried off prisoner to Constantinople. Totila proved himself both as a military and political leader, winning the support of the lower classes by liberating slaves and distributing land to the peasants. After a successful defence at Verona, Totila pursued and defeated a numerically superior army at the Battle of Faventia in 542 AD. Totila followed these victories by defeating the Romans outside Florence and capturing Naples. By 543, fighting on land and sea, he had reconquered the bulk of the lost territory. Rome held out, and Totila appealed unsuccessfully to the Senate in a letter reminding them of the loyalty of the Romans to his predecessor Theodoric the Great. In the spring of 544 the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I sent his general Belisarius to Italy to counterattack, but Totila captured Rome in 546 from Belisarius and depopulated the city after a yearlong siege. When Totila left to fight the Byzantines in Lucania, south of Naples, Belisarius retook Rome and rebuilt its fortifications.
After Belisarius retreated to Constantinople in 549, Totila recaptured Rome, going on to complete the reconquest of Italy and Sicily. By the end of 550, Totila had recaptured all but Ravenna and four coastal towns. The following year Justinian sent his general Narses with a force of 35,000 Lombards, Gepids and Heruli to Italy in a march around the Adriatic Sea to approach Ravenna from the north. In the Battle of Taginae, a decisive engagement during the summer of 552, in the Apennines near present-day Fabriano, the Gothic army was defeated, and Totila was mortally wounded. Totila was succeeded by his relative Teia, who later died at the Battle of Mons Lactarius. Pockets of resistance, reinforced by Franks and Alemanni who had invaded Italy in 553, continued until 562, when the Byzantines were in control of the whole of the country following Justinian's conquests.
Totila, original name Baduila (died 1 July 552), was the penultimate King of the Ostrogoths, reigning from 541 to 552 AD. A skilled military and political...
Totilas (23 May 2000 – 14 December 2020), also known from 2006 to 2011 as Moorlands Totilas, and nicknamed "Toto", was a Dutch Warmblood stallion standing...
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Delias totila is a butterfly in the family Pieridae. It was described by Karl Borromaeus Maria Josef Heller in 1896. It is endemic to New Britain. Heller...
Ostrogothic army commanded by King Totila, who had been advancing to intercept them. Finding himself considerably outnumbered, Totila ostensibly entered into negotiations...
Ricimer Sack of Rome (546), by Ostrogoths under King Totila Siege of Rome (549–550), also by Totila Sack of Rome (1084), by Robert Guiscard's Normans Sack...
to Narses after Totila's sea dominance was brought to an end. There were a number of reasons that Narses' march was very slow. Totila had dispatched various...
a military officer serving under Totila, who was chosen as his successor by being raised over a shield after Totila was killed in the Battle of Taginae...
successful, but under the leadership of Totila, the Goths reconquered most of the lost territory until Totila's death at the Battle of Taginae. The war...
Empire under Belisarius to relieve the city, the Ostrogoths under King Totila plunder Rome and destroy its fortifications. He then withdraws to Apulia...
leadership of Ildibad and Totila went on the offensive and recaptured all of northern Italy and parts of the south. Apparently Totila considered the opportunity...
Totila and Saint Benedict, painted by Spinello Aretino. According to Pope Gregory, King Totila ordered a general to wear his kingly robes in order to see...
money. As a result, the Goths at Pavia offered Ildibad's nephew Totila the throne. Totila was at that point himself negotiating with the imperial commander...
coasts of Thrace and the Edremit Gulf. Spring – Battle of Faventia: King Totila scatters the Byzantine forces near Faventia (modern Faenza) with 5,000 men...
treason. He is banished to Cyzicus, and his estates are confiscated. Autumn – Totila is elected king by the Ostrogothic nobles after the death of his uncle Ildibad...
Byzantine army (25,000 men). He is blocked by a Gothic force under king Totila near Taginae (Central Italy). In a narrow mountain valley, Narses deploys...
Ostrogoths in Italy. After the Battle of Taginae, in which the Ostrogoth king Totila was killed, the Byzantine general Narses captured Rome and besieged Cumae...
fought side by side with Totila at the disastrous Battle of Taginae in 552. Along with other four men, he accompanied Totila during his flight from the...
after entering the city via an aqueduct. In 543, during the Gothic Wars, Totila briefly took the city for the Ostrogoths, but the Byzantines seized control...
Ildibad succeeds Vitiges as king of the Ostrogoths, and installs his nephew Totila as commander of the Gothic army. He recaptures Venetia and Liguria in Northern...
stability. The most difficult period of the Ostrogothic war, against their king Totila, came during this decade, while divisions among Justinian's advisors undercut...
Justinian's orders, Pelagius stayed in Rome as the pope's representative. Totila, king of the Goths, had begun to blockade the city. Pelagius poured out...
the Battle of Faventia (modern Faenza), an Ostrogothic army under king Totila scattered the larger Roman forces of generals Constantian and Alexander...
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