Judicate of Cagliari

The Judicate of Cagliari was one of the four kingdoms or judicates into which Sardinia was divided during the Middle Ages, occupying the entire southern portion of the island and composed of thirteen subdivisions called curatoriae. Its origins lie in Byzantine Sardinia: after the imperial reconquest of 534 the island was governed by a magistrate, the iudex Provinciae, resident in Cagliari. From the early eighth century, as Arab and Berber expansion and piracy made communications with Constantinople difficult and Moorish raids struck the island itself, the Byzantine iudices heading the local administration were forced to govern autonomously and gradually became de facto independent rulers — the exact date of the judicate's founding is unknown. The judicate bordered the judicates of Arborea to the northwest and Logudoro and Gallura to the northeast, and its ruler bore the title of judex, or judge. Like the other Sardinian judicates it fought and treated with the rising maritime powers, and it was finally dismembered in 1258, its territories divided among its neighbours and the republics of Pisa and Genoa, ending the southern Sardinian kingdom.