The Dorias, a wealthy and powerful Genoese family, had rebelled against Aragonese rule over Sardinia in 1347 and defeated the Catalans at Aidu de Turdu, occupying Bonorva and sparking what will be a long war between Aragon and Genoa, but at the outset the Doria could not take advantage of their victory.

An alliance between Aragon and the Giudicato of Arborea—one of the four independent, hereditary "judicatures" (giudicati) into which the island of Sardinia is divided—had been in effect with Aragon for more than fifty years at the time of the accession of Marianus IV of Arborea in 1347.

Born at Oristano, Marianus is the son of Hugh II and successor of his childless brother Peter III.

At the behest of his father he had spent most of his youth in Barcelona, where he was educated at the court of Alfonso IV of Aragon.

He had participated actively in the coronation of Peter IV in 1336.

In the same year in Barcelona, he married Timbor, daughter of Dalmatius IV of Rocabertí and Beatrice of Serrallonga, Baroness of Cabrenys.

In 1339, he was invested by Peter with the counties of Bas (Spain), Goceano (Sardinia), and Marmilla (Sardinia).

Peter IV, faced with the popular uprising in Sardinia and menaced by Genoese attempts to recapture the island, secures the aid of the Venetians and Catalans, whose fleets pursue the Genoese and defeat them in a high seas naval battle in 1352.

A storm disrupts the allied fleet, however, enabling the Genoese to regroup and attack Corsica and Sardinia.