History of Sardinia 23 February 1793, Domenico Millelire, in command of the Sardinian fleet, defeated near the Maddalena archipelago the fleets of the French Republic, which was included with the rank of lieutenant, the young and future Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte. Millelire received the first Gold Medal of Military Valor of the Italian Navy. In the same month, Sardinians stopped the attempted French landing on the beach of Quartu Sant'Elena, near the Capital of Cagliari. Because of these successes, the representatives of nobility and clergy ("Stamenti") formulated five requests addressed to the King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia in order to have
Sardinia is suggested that the name had a religious connotation from its use also as the adjective for the ancient Sardinian mythological hero-god Sardus Pater ("Sardinian Father" or "Father of the Sardinians"), as well as being the stem of the adjective "sardonic". In Classical antiquity, Sardinia was called a number of names besides "Sardò" () or "Sardinia", like (the Latinised form of ), "Sandaliotis" () and "Argirofleps" (). Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily and before Cyprus), with an area of . It is situated between 38° 51' and 41° 18' latitude north (respectively Isola del