If a State is in danger – Since always, all over the world, a State with survival needs, surrounded by hostile States, either attacks or perishes; and, to save itself, it takes refuge in a more powerful State, in a higher Authority that can support and defend it in times of need (as, for example, Israel does today with the United States).
Barisone King of Arborea and Frederick Barbarossa – At the dawn of the past Millennium, since 1146, King Barisone I of the House of Lacon-Serra reigned over Arborea, in the center of the island. He was in constant conflict with the neighboring rulers of Càlari, Torres and Gallura, and aspired to subjugate them so as not to be subjugated himself.
For this reason, he turned to the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, stationed with his Court in Lombardy, hoping that, if he had awarded him the title of "King of Sardinia", he would have had the right to invade the neighbouring hostile kingdoms with the support of the Italian Ghibellines, and would have elevated Sardinia to a single, unitary sovereign Kingdom (obviously, under his rule).
The first Sardinian motto in History – And, completely absorbed in his dream of greatness, he launched the first Sardinian motto in History, having a seal minted with these leonine verses: est vis sardorum pariter regnum populorum (in free translation; the strength of the united Sardinians lies in a single kingdom formed by all the peoples). Emilio Lussu, in 1921, would have applauded him.
Barisone King of Sardinia – Unfortunately, to obtain the imperial title, money was needed, a lot of money, and he did not have it. So, he turned to the Genoese; and here is the mistake, because the Genoese are notoriously stingy. The doge of the Ligurian Republic lent him the 4000 silver marks needed for the trip, food, lodging and the imperial title that Barisone actually obtained on August 10, 1164 with a coronation ceremony in the cathedral of San Siro in Pavia; and for three days there were celebrations and hunts. Unfortunately, Barisone was not able to repay the large debt immediately, and, consequently, the Genoese held him hostage in their city for seven long years, until 1172.
A sad return to his homeland – Upon his return to his homeland, Barisone I tried, without success, to once again realize with weapons the ancient imperialist dream of unity of the Sardinian people, not accepted by all. Perhaps for this reason, unable to count on either Genoa or Pisa, at peace with each other since 6 November 1175, he strengthened ties with the Crown of Aragon by giving in marriage in 1177 his daughter from his first marriage, Sinispella, to Ugo-Poncio de Cervera, viscount of Bas, from whose union, the following year, Ugone I was born.
In 1180 he attacked the Kingdom of Càlari again but was repelled.
Old age and death – In his last years he devoted himself to charitable works and to the reclamation of the territory, granting the Benedictines of Montecassino the church of San Nicola di Gurgo or Burgo, near Oristano, and the freedom to fish in the ponds of Santa Giusta, Cabras (Mar 'e Pontis) and Mistras in Sinis. In exchange, in 1182 he asked the Cassinese abbot to send him twelve monks, «… three or four of whom – says the translation of the document in medieval Latin – are literate, so that, if necessary, they can be elected bishops or archbishops, and, moreover, they can deal with the affairs of our Kingdom both with the Roman Curia and with the Imperial Curia»
He died on an unspecified day between the end of 1184 and the first months of 1185. To hear signs of unity among the Sardinian people we had to wait more than seven hundred years, until the Congress of the Sardinian Action Party in Macomèr in 1921.
