as the Battle of Busta Gallorum) near Sentinum. Totila was killed in the fighting. A similar battle followed a few months later under his successor and relative Teia, who died in combat as well during the Battle of Mons Lactarius. This additional defeat at the hands of the Eastern Roman Empire signaled the veritable end of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy and no further king emerged. Another army supposedly 75,000 strong of Franks and Alemanni still existed as did the threat to Italy and despite the entry of these forces into the Po Valley and their ravaging of Italy for a time, Narses eventually brought them to heel. Meanwhile, the land held by the Gothic church was transferred to the Roman church in Italy and land owned by the Gothic kings went to the emperor. Aftermath For the Byzantines, the war officially ended in 554, which was followed by the broad promulgation of Justinian's Pragmatic Sanction. One of the stipulations Justinian made clear in this document was the validation of all edicts made by "legitimate" kings and those from the Roman people or Senate, while those from Totila—deemed a "most abominable tyrant"—were rendered void. The Justinian Code was also retroactively made applicable throughout Italy. Socially, the country was disrupted by the actions of the Goths Witigis, Totila, and Teia, who had collectively fractured the Senate's social standing and the servant-based economy by liberating slaves and coloni. Over the longer term, this also meant that western senators were seen as inferior to their eastern counterparts, which in some ways further contributed to the Byzantine's ascendancy. Nevertheless, the country was so ravaged by war that any return to normal life proved impossible and Rome, having suffered through seventeen-years' worth of bitter fighting during the Gothic wars, had been besieged and captured multiple times. French historian Bertrand Lançon described this period of late antiquity as Rome's "darkest hours." In 568, only three years after Justinian's death, most of the country was conquered by Alboin of the Lombards, who absorbed the remaining Ostrogothic population, becoming the heirs of the Ostrogoths in Italy itself. Notes References Sources Online Further reading External links The Diplomacy of Totila (paper on Totila's foreign policy) La guerra gotico-bizantina Le sepolture regie del regno italico (secoli VI-X) – Totila (541–552) 552 deaths 6th-century kings of Italy People from the Province of Treviso Ostrogothic kings 6th-century monarchs in Europe Gothic warriors