Author Description

This book provides the first in-depth study of the Ostrogothic king Baduila (541-552), commonly known as Totila. Relying on literary, numismatic, epigraphic, and papyrological evidence, Marco Cristini examines Baduila's military campaigns, foreign policy, relations with bishops and monks, alleged social reforms, coinage, kingship, and political communication. Historians have traditionally investigated Baduila's reign relying mainly on Procopius of Caesarea's Gothic War, but recent studies about this historian have indicated that his works are heavily influenced by Justinian's political communication and the canons of sixth-century classicizing historiography. Thanks to the new scholarship about the age of Justinian and Ostrogothic Italy, it is now possible to examine the evolution of Baduila's rule with a growing awareness of the limits of Procopius' narrative. By analysing the course and outcome of the second phase of the Gothic War, this book gives a comprehensive overview of the decade that marked the end of Classical Antiquity and the beginning of the Early Middle Ages in the Italian peninsula.