The Athen family was a noble family of Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

 during the 11th and 12th centuries. It first appeared during the reign of Gonario I

Gonario I of Torres

Gonario I Comita was the first known Giudice of Logudoro and Arborea from perhaps as early as the late tenth century and as late as circa 1038...

 and was most prominent in the Giudicato of Logudoro.

In 1128, members of the Athen family, perhaps seeking to usurp the throne or perhaps just the regency, made an attempt to harm the young Gonario II of Logudoro. His regent, Ittocorre Gambella

Ittocorre Gambella

Ittocorre Gambella was the regent of the Giudicato of Logudoro between 1127 and sometime before 1140.When Constantine I died around 1127, he left his young son Gonario II under the regency of Ittocorre...

, quickly whisked him away from the palace and brought him to safety first at Porto Torres

Porto Torres

Porto Torres is a comune and city in northern Sardinia, in the Province of Sassari.It is situated on the north coast about 25 km east of the Gorditanian promontory , and on the spacious bay of the Gulf of Asinara.-History:...

 and second at Pisa

Pisa

Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...

. From this point on, the great families, like the Athen, fade into view to be replaced by the Repubbliche Marinare

Repubbliche Marinare

The maritime republics were a number of city-states which flourished in Italy in the Middle Ages. The best known are the Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa and Venice. These states competed with each other both militarily and commercially...

of northern Italy (Genoa

Republic of Genoa

The Most Serene Republic of Genoa |Ligurian]]: Repúbrica de Zêna) was an independent state from 1005 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast, as well as Corsica from 1347 to 1768, and numerous other territories throughout the Mediterranean....

 and Pisa

Republic of Pisa

The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa during the late tenth and eleventh centuries. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century before being surpassed and...

) in the power politics of Logudoro.