The principal sources documenting his takeover are the vita of Pope Stephen III in the Liber Pontificalis and a surviving deposition of the primicerius Christopher from 769, preserved in a ninth-century manuscript of Verona, the Depositio Christophori.
[5] In 767 Pope Paul I fell ill. Toto, with his brothers Constantine, Passivus (Passibo) and Paschal, gathered a large army from Nepi, the other Etrurian towns, and the rustici or contadini (peasant conscripts), and entered Rome by the gate of Saint Pancras (San Pancrazio).
The primicerius Christopher drew an oath from Toto that he would not interfere in the coming election, but when Paul died on 28 June,[6] he seized the Lateran Palace and declared his lay brother Constantine pope.
[7] The following day, George of Palestrina, the vicedominus, who was in the palace at the time of the coup, was forced to ordain Constantine a subdeacon and deacon in the chapel of Saint Lawrence.
On 29 July the bridge over the Aniene was taken, then the Ponte Milvio, and finally they arrived at the Saint Pancras gate of Rome itself, which their allies in the city opened to them.
[8] At this moment the Roman and papal officers Demetrius and Gratiosus, who had been in contact with the Lombards' and Sergius's allies in the city, stabbed Toto from behind with their lances, killing him.
[9] Toto had made no attempt to overthrow the papal bureaucracy or replace the leaders of the urban militia, but besides naming himself duke, he appointed an ally, Gracilis, to be tribune of Alatri.