Vandalic Age

Cuglieri, Cornus, basilica paleocristiana. Foto di Marco Ceraglia, 2009, Risorse digitali Sardeggna IDV

Documentary sources are scarce and it is therefore archaeology that provides the tools to reconstruct Sardinian history in the century of the Vandal conquest. The continuity of trade flows with Rome and with Northern Africa indicates that the late-Roman economic fabric remained vital. Coastal cities do not lose their importance. However, the territory must be reorganized according to new coordinates, dictated by the Christian presence.
In the 4th and 5th centuries, there are records relating to the first Sardinian martyrs and bishops. The Christian presence intensified when the Vandals arrived and continued in the almost five hundred years of Byzantine control, which began in 534 with the reconquest of Sardinia by Justinian.
In 484, five Sardinian bishops participated in the Council of Carthage: Lucifer of Cagliari, Vitale di Sulci (Sant'Antioco), Martiniano of Forum Traiani (Fordongianus), Boniface of Sanafer (possibly Cornus, near Cuglieri) and Felice di Turris Lybissonis (Porto Torres). In the following decades, the intensification of tensions between the Catholic clergy and the Aryan clergy introduced by the Vandals led to the exile in Sardinia of a group of bishops faithful to the Church of Rome. Among these is Fulgenzio di Ruspe, who founded a monastery in Cagliari near the Basilica of San Saturnino.
Archaeology makes it possible to document even in Sardinia the presence of the oldest type of Christian church, the basilica with a longitudinal plan developed in Rome at the time of Emperor Constantine. Three-nave churches from the V-VI century, with apses to the west or east, have been identified in Cornus, Tharros, Nora, Porto Torres and Donori.
The Cagliari monastery of Fulgenzio becomes an active center of culture and in general the activity of African bishops favors the Christianization of the interior areas of the island, as documented by the various cases of rural churches equipped with baptisteries.