History of Sardinia the speech of the majority of the inhabitants, ultimately developing into the modern Sardinian language, also the Roman religion began to spread among Sardinians. Caralis, the provincial capital, Nora and Sulci obtained the status of Municipium within the 1st century AD and a Roman colony named Turris Libissonis (Porto Torres) was founded in the north-west while the village of Usellus become perphans a Roman colony under Trajan. 4 great roads were built: 2 along the coasts and 2 in the interior connecting all the major cities. During the Roman period, the geographer Ptolemy noted that Sardinia was inhabited by the
Sardinia Kingdom ended and Sardinia was returned to Roman rule. In 533, Sardinia returned to the rule of the Byzantine Empire when the Vandals were defeated by the armies of Justinian I under the General Belisarius in the Battle of Tricamarum, in their African kingdom; Belisarius sent his general Cyril to Sardinia to retake the island. Sardinia remained in Byzantine hands for the next 300 years aside from a short period in which it was invaded by the Ostrogoths in 551. Under Byzantine rule, the island was divided into districts called "mereíai" (μερείαι) in Byzantine Greek, which were governed by a