Totila

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Totila (also known under the name Baduila ; † after June 30, 552 near Taginae , Umbria) was rex or king of the Ostrogoths from 542 until his death . He fell in the battle of Busta Gallorum in the summer of 552 .

Life

origin

Totila was a nephew of the brief Ostrogoth king Hildebad and did not belong to the Amaler family , the former ruling family. After the devastating defeats against the Eastern Roman general Belisarius in the first phase of the Gothic War and the capture of their rex Witiges 540, the Ostrogoths had with difficulty managed to maintain a small area of ​​power north of the Po River . At the end of 541, Hildebad was murdered after a few months. At that time, Totila was a Gothic comes from Treviso and was probably proclaimed a rex in early or mid-542 .

The fight against Ostrom and the successful first years

Shortly thereafter, Totila achieved first successes. Two smaller Eastern Roman armies were defeated, and the Goths took some cities in the Emilia region and in Umbria. In 543 the whole of southern Italy was conquered and Naples was taken .

The goal of Totila was to thwart the policy of the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian , which resulted in an occupation of Italy and thus a restauratio imperii . In fact, Totila was very successful in the beginning, benefiting greatly from the fact that Justinian's best troops were tied in the Orient, where they had been waging war against the Sassanids since 540 . In addition, the imperial functionaries and tax collectors had made themselves unpopular with the Romans of Italy, which is probably why not a few wished for the time of the rule of the Goths back. Totila took Rome at the end of 546, demonstratively showing gentleness towards prisoners. After the first capture of Rome, he had the captured senators interned in Campania, where they were later freed by Eastern Roman troops. Anyway, Totila's possibilities were limited, which can also be seen from the fact that although he succeeded in conquering the Eternal City, he was unable to hold it in the long term; the city was soon reoccupied by imperial troops. Nevertheless, Totila also achieved some notable successes in the field, especially since an Ostrogothic fleet was launched under his leadership.

Outlawed by Justinian as a usurper, Totila pursued not only military measures but also political ones in order to suppress the influence of Eastern Stream. He began a veritable propaganda campaign in which he juxtaposed the image of a harmonious way of life of Ostrogoths and Romans in the time of Theodoric the Great with the years of suffering and war and Justinian's tough tax policy. A first letter to the Western Roman Senate, however, remained unanswered. In truth, it was not least Totila's scorched earth tactics that made this so-called Second Gothic War far more devastating than the first in 535-540. For Italy, this conflict and its negative consequences, including the destruction of the infrastructure, probably in fact meant the end of antiquity . Nevertheless, Totila gained some popularity due to his successes, especially since he took slaves into his army, but this can also be seen in the context of his policy, which thus met the land-owning senators as supporters of Constantinople.

In terms of foreign policy, Totila had little success. He succeeded neither in persuading the Franks to enter into a marriage alliance, nor in obtaining the recognition of his kingship (which was probably an illusion from the outset) by the East. Still, his situation did not seem hopeless. In early 550 Rome fell again into the hands of the Goths through betrayal by the Emperor's Isaurian foederati . Totila now organized (the last) games in the Circus Maximus and had coins minted showing his portrait with an imperial diadem - a clear affront to Justinian. The Eastern Romans were initially thrown back on Ravenna and some coastal cities, but Totila had also lost his fleet, while large areas of Italy were devastated by the war.

Totila's end

In the spring of 552 the Eastern Roman commander Narses began a large-scale land offensive against Totila in Italy on behalf of the emperor.

Narses' troops - with almost 30,000 elite soldiers a large army by late antiquity - crossed the Balkans and advanced from the north to Italy, bypassing the Gothic defensive lines. The army marched on Verona and Rome towards Totila, who stood in Umbria at Busta Gallorum near Taginae on June 30th or July 1st of the year 552 with about 20,000 men to fight. In this battle, the frontal attacking Ostrogoth army bled to death under the arrows of the Eastern Roman archers. Totila himself was badly wounded and died either during the battle or shortly after while on the run. This ended the dream of a claim by the Ostrogoths in Italy. Although the Ostrogoths were able to rally again under their last rex Teja , the loss of a large part of the Ostrogothic cavalry also meant the end of the effective resistance.

Aftermath

Memory of Totila in the Walhalla

King Totila later lived on as a hero figure - Prokopios of Caesarea and Jordanes did not deny him respect, as did the German writer Felix Dahn in his historical novel “ A Battle for Rome ” , published in 1876 . In modern research, however, he is seen in a much more differentiated way and understood less as a Germanic hero, but more as a typical late antique warlord .

A memorial plaque for him is in the Walhalla in Donaustauf .

literature

Web links

Commons : Totila  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ In research it has long been disputed whether his official name was Totila or Baduila and whether the second name was an epithet or something similar. It is often assumed that the king used Baduila as his official name, but the majority of late ancient historians call him Totila (s). The etymology and the way the names are formed are also controversial, see H. Reichert, Totila , § 1 (onenological), p. 92f.
  2. ↑ So Wolfram, somewhat differently Krautschick, Totila , p. 93, who considers a survey in 541 to be more likely.
predecessor Office successor
Erarich 541 King of the Ostrogoths Teja 552
personal data
SURNAME Totila
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Baduila
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of the Ostrogoths
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century or 6th century
DATE OF DEATH after June 30, 552
Place of death Taginae , Umbria