Editing Perugia (section)

=== Early Middle Ages ===
It is hardly mentioned except by the geographers until it was the only city in Umbria to resist [[Totila]] and the [[Ostrogoths]], who captured it and laid the city waste in 547, after a long siege, apparently after the city's Byzantine garrison evacuated. Negotiations with the besieging forces fell to the city's bishop, [[Herculanus of Perugia|Herculanus]], as representative of the townspeople.<ref>Patrick Amory, ''People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 489–554'' pp185-86, referring to Perugia in passing, notes the increasingly localized role assumed since the mid-fifth century by the bishops.</ref> Totila is said to have ordered the bishop to be [[flayed]] and beheaded. St. Herculanus (Sant'Ercolano) later became the city's [[patron saint]].<ref>Procopius, ''Bellum Gothicum'', 3 (7).2.35.2, characteristically does not mention the incident, reported in [[Gregory the Great]], [http://www.ccel.org/p/pearse/morefathers/gregory_03_dialogues_book3.htm#C13 ''Dialogues'', 13] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090917040820/http://www.ccel.org/p/pearse/morefathers/gregory_03_dialogues_book3.htm#C13 |date=2009-09-17 }}, who imagines a seven-year siege (i.e. since 540, before the accession of [[Totila|Baduila]]) and dramatically reports Herculanus' grotesque murder.</ref>