TOTILA. – King of the Ostrogoths, d. in July 552. Grandson of King Ildibad, he commanded the garrison of Treviso when he was acclaimed king (541). His name was Baduila; 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 then occupied Benevento, Cuma, and Naples (543), bringing all southern Italy under his control. In 544 he occupied Tivoli, and in 545 he laid siege to Rome, which he entered in December 546. The deacon Pelagius, who during the siege had sought to have hostilities suspended, obtained the sparing of the citizens, but the city was sacked, destroyed, and plundered. When Pelagius’s mission to Constantinople to reach an agreement failed, T. continued his raids throughout Italy; but while he was in Ravenna, Belisarius was able to occupy Rome (547), fortifying himself there and defending the city against the assaults that T., who had immediately returned, launched. Belisarius’s sudden recall to the East enabled T. to reoccupy the city (550), but this time he showed himself more benevolent and indeed promoted the city’s material and social recovery. This must probably be attributed to political reasons, although the meeting T. had with s. Benedict at Montecassino in 546 cannot have been without influence (cf. s. Gregory the Great, Dial., II, 14 ff.; ed. U. Moricca, Rome 1924). While T., by then master of Italy, occupied Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica and carried out raids along the coasts of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, a large Byzantine army commanded by Narses was advancing into Italy. In the naval engagement near Ancona, T. suffered a defeat and shortly afterward was decisively defeated near Tagina (Gualdo Tadino), where he died from wounds sustained in battle.