TOTILA. — King of the Ostrogoths, d. July 552. Nephew of King Ildibado, he commanded the garrison at Treviso when he was acclaimed king (541). His real name was Bauduila; T. (= immortal) was merely a nickname.
He immediately confronted the Byzantine armies, defeating them at Faenza and in the Mugello. Continuing his advance southward, he occupied Benevento, Cuma, Naples (543), bringing the whole of southern Italy under his control. In 544 he took Tivoli, and in 545 he besieged Rome, entering it in December 546. The deacon Pelagius, who during the siege had sought to suspend hostilities, obtained that the citizens be spared, but the city was sacked, destroyed, and plundered. When Pelagius’ mission to Constantinople to reach an agreement failed, T. continued his raids through Italy, but while he was at Ravenna, Belisarius was able to retake Rome (547), fortifying and defending it against the assaults that T., having returned immediately, launched. The sudden recall of Belisarius to the East allowed T. to retake the city (550), but this time he showed greater clemency and even promoted the city’s material and social recovery. This was probably due to political reasons, but it cannot be ruled out that T.’s meeting with St. Benedict at Montecassino in 546 played a role (cf. St. Gregory the Great, *Dialogues*, II, 14 ff.; ed. U. Moricca, Rome 1924). While T., now master of Italy, occupied Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica and raided the Adriatic and Ionian coasts, a strong Byzantine army led by Narses was advancing into Italy. In the naval battle near Ancona, T. suffered a defeat, and shortly afterward he was definitively beaten at Taginae (Gualdo Tadino), where he died from wounds received in combat.