7 - Totila: Hero or Trope?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
Summary
Then the Goths made Badua, called Totila, their king. He came down on Rome and besieged it. Such famine occurred in Rome that they even wanted to eat their own children. One day in the 13th indiction [549-550] he entered Rome by St. Paul's Gate. To prevent the Romans dying by the sword he had a war trumpet sounded at night till the whole people fled or hid themselves in churches. The king stayed with the Romans like a father with his children.
– Lib. Pont. Vita Vigilius 61.7 (trans. Davies)If you change your course, God too will instantly become hostile to you. For he does not side with a particular race of men or nation, but with those who show the greater honour to justice. For him it is no labour to transfer his blessings from one people to another.
– Proc. Wars 7.21.8-9 (trans. Kaldellis)Totila is one of the most remarkable and memorable figures in the Wars. As I have argued elsewhere at greater length, the Gothic king is the most capable general and political leader in Book 7, and is, at the very least, presented by Procopius sympathetically in Book 8. Most scholars perceive Procopius’ admiration for Totila as genuine. Voicing this consensus, Michael Whitby declares that ‘Totila emerges as the hero of the Western narrative, a wise commander who also behaves well’. As I will argue in this chapter, however, the reality is more complex. Procopius’ nuanced characterisation of Totila is directed by his literary demands as much as a need to supply a window into his ‘true’ feelings about a man that the historian had likely never met or for that matter even observed at close range.
This is not to claim that Procopius did not expect his audience to admire Totila. By displaying a singleness of purpose in ejecting the East Romans from Italy in the 540s, Totila steals Belisarius’ thunder in Book 7. The Gothic king found in this section of the Wars encapsulates many of the leadership qualities and virtues found in Procopius’ idealised portraits of Romans like Belisarius and Germanus.
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- Masculinity, Identity, and Power Politics in the Age of JustinianA Study of Procopius, pp. 193 - 212Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020