Day Two: Sardinia’s earliest rebellions = some of Rome’s “triumphs”
As mentioned in Day One’s brief account of Sardinia becoming a Roman province, the island was ceded by Carthage to Rome about the year 237 BC, three years after the peace treaty which ended the war between Carthage and Rome.
Rome first sent the consul of 238, T Sempronius Gracchus with a fleet and troops, to take formal possession of Sardinia. The extent of his efforts is unclear in the ancient record; The Roman Florus (in the Augustan period, 200 years later,)wrote that Gracchus had captured Sardinia but that ferocity of the people and frightfulness of the island’s mountains gave him no advantage. Gracchus may have taken control of the various coastal cities (especially Carales (modern Cagliari) in the south, but could not extend Rome’s power into the interior.
In 236 BC consul Gaius Licinio Varo had to put down a “rebellion” in the island. No triumph was recorded for his success, although his successors, also called to put down rebellions over the next three or four years, celebrated triumphs, as recorded in the Fasti Triumphales.
In early March 235/4 BC, consul T. Manlius Torquatus celebrated a triumph over the Sardinians.
In April 234, Publius Cornelius was sent to be praetor, but was soon faced with a revolt perhaps due to his administration over the new province (including tax-collecting). Then he and many of his troops died perhaps from malaria, So consul Sp Carvilius Maximus Ruga came to the island and then celebrated another triumph.
In March 233/2, consul M Pomponius Matho celebrated a triumph over the Sardinians.
No further military pacification attempts are reported in ancient sources, at least until Hannibal Barca began his march into Italy. This resurgence of Carthaginian might prompted some Sardinians to once again think about ejecting Rome from her shores.
Day Three: The Ampsicora rebellion in Sardinia against Rome, and Hannibal Barca’s link to Sardinia.
My Sardinia 