Totila

Totila was elected king by Ostrogothic nobles in autumn 541 after they'd killed two predecessors for trying to surrender to Rome. A grandnephew of Theodoric the Great's sword-bearer, he proved both commander and populist: he freed slaves, gave land to peasants, and beat a larger Roman force at Faventia in 542. By 543 he'd recaptured most of what the Eastern Empire had seized three years earlier. He took Rome from Belisarius in 546 after a yearlong siege and emptied the city, lost it, then retook it in 549 after Belisarius withdrew to Constantinople. By late 550 only Ravenna and four coastal to…