ed 694 years, during which it was an important source of grain for the capital. Latin came to be the dominant spoken language of Sardinia during this period, though Roman culture was slower to take hold, and Roman rule was often contested by the inhabitants of Sardinia's mountainous central regions.
Vandal interlude
The east Germanic tribe of the Vandals led by King Geiseric had migrated to coastal Numidia (modern Morocco and Algeria) from Spain in AD 429 at the invitation of the Roman governor of North Africa Count Boniface. The Vandals were seeking safe haven from military pressure by the Romans from Gaul (modern France, Belgium and North Italy). Boniface was seeking to shore up his military position in the succession struggle following the death of Western Emperor Honorius. In AD 439, the Vandals revolted and seized Carthage and Africa (modern Tunisa, and Libya). The new Vandal Kingdom of North Africa achieved peace with the Romans on favorable terms in AD 442, but in AD 455 another Roman coup d'état killed Emperor Valentinian III whose daughter had been promised to Geiseric's son. Geiseric, led his powerful fleet to sack Rome, along the way occupying Caralis and other key coastal cities of Sardinia and claiming the island for his kingdom.
Vandal rule lasted for 77 years of which there is little detail in the historical record. It is known that the Vandal government continued the forms of the existing Roman Imperial structure. The governor of Sardinia continued to be called the praeses and apparently continued to manage military, judicial, and civil governmental functions via imperial procedures. (This continuity was not novel to Sardinia; like the Visigoths, the Vandals generally maintained the pretense of the empire, nominally acknowledging Constantinople and declaring themselves its deputies.) The only Vandal governor of Sardinia about whom there is substantial record is the last, Goddas, a Visigoth noble. In AD 530 a coup d'état
