Editing Totila (section)

==Early life==
[[Image:Totila fa dstruggere la città di Firenze.jpg|thumb|300px|Totila razes the walls of [[Florence]]: illumination from the Chigi ms of [[Giovanni Villani|Villani's ''Cronica'']]]]
[[File:Baduila BMC 044.jpg|thumb|[[Nummus|decanummium]] coin of Baduila (''Badvela Rex''), issued AD 541–552.]]
"Totila" was the ''nom de guerre'' of a man whose real name was Baduila, as can be seen from the coinage he issued.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} "Totila" is the name used by the Byzantine historian [[Procopius]], who accompanied the [[Byzantine]] general [[Belisarius]] during the Gothic War, and whose chronicles are the main source of information for Totila. According to [[Henry Bradley]], 'Totila' and 'Baduila' are diminutives of ''Totabadws''.{{sfn|Bradley|1903|p=280}} Born in [[Treviso]], Totila was a relative of [[Theudis]], king of the [[Visigoths]], and a sword-bearer; a role that made for a good career among his kin.{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=351}}

Totila was elected king of the [[Ostrogoths]] in 541 after the assassination of his uncle [[Ildibad]] and having surreptitiously engineered the assassination of Ildibad's short-lived successor, his cousin [[Eraric]], in 541.{{sfn|Heather|2013|p=162}}{{efn|Eraric retained the Gothic kingship for a period no more than five months.{{sfn|Heather|2018|p=254}}}} Like [[Alaric I]], Totila was quite young when he became king and was declared such by the Goths to recover dominion over the Italians.{{sfn|Wolfram|1988|p=353}} The official Byzantine position, adopted by Procopius and even by the Romanized Goth, [[Jordanes]]—writing just before the conclusion of the Gothic Wars—was that Totila was a usurper.{{sfn|Croke|1987|pp=117–134}} According to historian Peter Heather, as Ildebadus's nephew, Totila nonetheless hailed from a prominent Gothic family, one that surrounded and "even occasionally challenged Theodoric's Amal dynasty".{{sfn|Heather|2018|p=255}}{{efn|Jordanes' ''Getica'' (551) overlooks the then-recent successes of Totila. Historian Peter Heather explains that Totila's success was partly attributable to two factors; those are Justinian's inability to reinforce his Italian army due to the ongoing war with Persia, and Totila's lenient treatment of prisoners—especially other barbarian troops—who, once the Roman military service pay owed to them failed to arrive, were co-opted into Totila's army as reinforcements instead.{{sfn|Heather|2013|p=162}}}}