Totila, original name Baduila, 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 gold tremissis in the name of Justinian I, minted by Totila.
Totila razes the walls of Florence: illumination from the Chigi ms of Villani's Cronica
decanummium coin of Baduila (Badvela Rex), issued AD 541–552.
Totila by Francesco Salviati, c. 1549
The Ostrogoths were a Roman-era Germanic people. In the 5th century, they followed the Visigoths in creating one of the two great Gothic kingdoms within the Western Roman Empire, drawing upon the large Gothic populations who had settled in the Balkans in the 4th century. While the Visigoths had formed under the leadership of Alaric I, the new Ostrogothic political entity which came to rule Italy was formed in the Balkans under Theodoric the Great.
The Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna, Italy
Ostrogothic bow-fibulae (c. 500) from Emilia-Romagna, Italy
The Concesti helmet was found among the burial goods of a probable Ostrogothic Prince. Hermitage Museum.
Ostrogothic belt buckle, Pavia Civic Museums