126 Zedda
During the battle, Ephesus had a vision: on his right, towards the east, he
saw a man resembling the prime eunuch of the palace’s harem, mounted on
a white horse, holding a rompheum in his right hand and something resem-
bling the sign of the cross in his left. The figure in his dream asks him to wor-
ship “the king,” invites him to follow, then accosts the enemy. The hostile army
flees this being, liberating Sardinia of its presence forevermore. The victory
is clearly tied to the identity of this character, an angel: “victoria sibi de coelo
subministrata per angelum (victory was imparted unto him by an angel from
heaven).” In Constantinople, the archangel Michael is represented as a high-
ranking court dignitary in a white tunic or a purple chlamys, and imperial loros
(the uniform of a leading commander), usually leaning on a lance and holding
the labarum in his left hand and the cross-topped orb in his right. It is there-
fore clear that the figure to whom the victory is credited, as well as the entire
military operation described in the passion, are deeply indebted to the culture
of the Eastern Empire.
In sum, it is possible that in the context of tenth-century Tharros, it was im-
portant to modify one part of the Passion of Ephesus in order to commemorate
the victory of the Christians over the barbarians—that is, Muslims—in a sub-
limated way. This revision was undoubtedly carried out for the sake of didactic
moralizing, and not simply for reasons of hagiography.
The fact that the enemies vanquished by Ephisius were Muslims, as was
the case at Garigliano, is hypothetical, as previously stated. However, if such a
Byzantine victory in Sardinia did occur, it would have eased the politics of the
archon of Sardinia, possibly drawing it into the shadow of Byzantine power. By
the end of the tenth century, according to the Vita Sancti Mamiliani et Sentii
Sardinia’s power was increasingly establishing its autonomy from Byzantium
under one Lord.26 Later indications of a rapprochement between Sardinia
and Byzantium can be found in Costantino Porfirogenito’s De Caerimoniis, in
which a laud sung by Sardinians is recorded among those sung at the court of
Byzantium in honor of the emperor, his familiars, or great dignitaries of pres-
tigious rank.27 A better indicator of the context of a political rapprochement
26 Corrado Zedda, I giudici cagliaritani, la diffusione del culto di san Giorgio e la nascita
della diocesi di Barbaria/Suelli, in « Studi Ogliastrini », 13 (2017), pp. 11–38.
27 Constantini Porphyrogeneti, “De caerimoniis aulae Byzantinae,” Patrologia cursus com-
pletus. Series Graeca 112 (1857), col. 1212. On the laud, see Giulio Paulis, Lingua e cultura
nella Sardegna bizantina: Testimonianze linguistiche dell’influsso greco (Sassari, 1983),
especially pp. 176–181; Raimondo Turtas, Storia della Chiesa in Sardegna dalle origini al
Duemila (Rome, 1999), pp. 167–170; and, more recently, Giampaolo Mele, “Il canto delle
‘laudes regiae’ e una ‘euphemía’ di Sardi a Bisanzio nel secolo X,” in Studi in onore del
Cardinale Mario Francesco Pompedda, ed. Tonino Cabizzosu (Cagliari, 2002), pp. 213–222.