Totila was king of the Ostrogoths from 541 to 552 and very nearly reversed the Byzantine conquest of Italy before being killed at Taginae.
Totila became king of the Ostrogoths in 541, when the kingdom had already lost Ravenna and looked finished, and within a few years he had taken back most of Italy.
He is the most capable opponent the Byzantines faced in this war, and the one who came closest to reversing its outcome entirely.
His own coins call him Baduila; Totila is the name Procopius uses, and it is the one that stuck.
Little is known of his early life beyond that he was a nephew of Ildibad, an earlier Gothic king, and was commanding at Treviso when he was offered the crown.
He was young — probably around thirty — and was chosen in a moment of crisis, after Eraric had been murdered for negotiating a surrender to the empire.
He inherited perhaps a few thousand fighting men and a handful of northern cities.
Procopius, who wrote for the other side, treats Totila with a respect he extends to almost no one else, and repeatedly contrasts his conduct with that of the Byzantine commanders.
The recurring theme is his treatment of civilians and prisoners. He is described restraining his troops from plunder and violence, releasing captives, and dealing generously with cities that surrendered — behaviour presented as both principled and shrewd, since it made surrender to him attractive.
He also had a taste for the theatrical. Before Taginae he is said to have ridden between the armies in gilded armour, wheeling his horse and throwing his lance and catching it, in a display that was partly bravado and partly a way of buying time for reinforcements that never arrived in useful numbers.
From 541 he moved fast and avoided sieges where he could, taking cities by negotiation and beating the scattered Byzantine field forces in detail.
He took Naples in 543, and Rome itself in 546 — and, finding the city indefensible, briefly considered destroying it, before letters from Belisarius persuaded him not to.
Rome changed hands repeatedly in these years, and by 550 Totila held most of Italy along with Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. He repeatedly offered peace on terms and Justinian repeatedly refused.
Justinian finally committed the resources the war had always needed and sent Narses in 551 with a large, properly paid army.
They met at Taginae in 552. Narses drew up a crescent of dismounted troops with massed archers on the wings, and the Gothic cavalry charge was shot to pieces before it reached the line.
Totila was wounded in the rout and died shortly afterwards at Caprae. With him went the only real chance the Ostrogothic kingdom had.
He is the reason the Gothic War lasted nineteen years instead of five, and the reason Italy was fought over so comprehensively that the reconquest ruined what it recovered.
His reputation is unusual in resting on an enemy's account. Procopius had no reason to flatter him, which is exactly why the praise carries weight.
He also fixed the pattern the Byzantines eventually learned: a war fought on the cheap against a competent opponent is more expensive than one fought properly.