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[[File: Totila_14thcentury.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left||A Fourteenth Century Depiction of Totila]]

Totila (ruled the Ostrogoths 541-552) was a true Ostrogoth in every sense of the word. Although he valued the art of diplomacy, Totila knew that in order to satisfy the Ostrogoths he would have to take a more bellicose stance toward the Byzantine Empire, which ultimately proved to be successful for his military and political career. Since he was not of the Amali Dynasty started by Theodoric, Totila had no apparent chance to be the king of the Ostrogoths, but he was able to take advantage in a lull in the hostilities during the Gothic War. The more traditional, war-like Ostrogoths wanted to keep fighting the Byzantines so they elected Totila, who was the commander of the Ostrogoth army, to be their king in the belief that he would restart the war with Justinian. <ref> Wolfram, Herwig. <i>History of the Goths.</i> Revised Edition. Translated by Thomas J. Dunlap. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988), p. 353</ref>

Once he was crowned king, Totila played the long game against his Byzantine foes. Instead of sending the bulk of his army into head-on confrontations, Totila showed patience by ambushing smaller Byzantine detachments and by employing long-range sieges instead of attacking city walls directly. <ref> Burns, p. 23</ref> Totila’s early, modest successes were enough to raise the spirit of the Ostrogoths – he was able to raise an army of 5,000 men in the winter of 541/42 that fought its way to victory that spring in the city of Faenza against a superior Byzantine force. <ref> Wolfram, p. 354</ref>