1/2 Siliqua - Baduila / In the name of Anastasius I, 491-518 Ticinum

Baduila — better known in the sources as Totila — struck these small siliquae at Ticinum (modern Pavia) during the most desperate phase of the Gothic War, when Byzantine forces under Narses were systematically dismantling Ostrogothic power in Italy. Invoking Anastasius I, dead for over three decades by this point, was a deliberate political fiction: it projected legitimacy while avoiding any acknowledgment of Justinian's authority over territory Baduila still physically controlled.

Totila died at the Battle of Busta Gallorum in 552, making the window for this issue exceptionally narrow.