Page 12 - Italian-American Herald - November 2024

12 ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM | NOVEMBER2024 ITALIAN-AMERICANHERALD HISTORY
Centuries passed as Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines roamed Malta
By Jeanne Cannavo
Around 700 B.C., the Ancient Greeks settled on Malta, predominantly in the area where the capital city of Valletta is located.
A century later Phoenician traders who used the islands as a stop on their trade routes from the eastern Mediterranean to Cornwall joined previous settlers on the island. The Phoenicians inhabited the area now known as Mdina and its surrounding town of Rabat, which they called Maleth. The Romans, who also lived in Mdina referred to the town and the island as Melita.
After the fall of Phoenicia, in 400 B.C., the area came under the control of Carthage, a former Phoenician colony. During this time the majority of people on Malta were farmers cultivating olives and carobs or tradesmen producing textiles.
During the First Punic War of 264 B.C., the Maltese people rebelled against Carthage and turned control of their garrison over
to the Roman consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus. He also served as a Roman consul during the Second Punic War and was a contemporary of Publius Cornelius Scipio. In
218 B.C., Sempronius was sent to Africa with 160 quinqueremes, an ancient Roman galley with five banks of oars on each side, to gather forces and supplies while Scipio was sent
to Iberia to intercept Hannibal. Sempronius then sent a Roman force from Lilybaeum on the island of Sicily and took control of Malta from the Carthaginians.
Malta remained loyal to Rome during the Second Punic War and was rewarded with the title Foederata Civitas, a designation that meant it was exempt from paying monetary as dictated under Roman law. At this point Malta came under the jurisdiction of the province of Sicily.
By 117 A.D., the Maltese Islands were a thriving part of the Roman Empire and had been promoted to the status of municipium (a Roman municipality) under Hadrian. Catacombs in Rabat testify to an early Christian community after the arrival of St. Paul on the islands.
In approximately 60 A.D., a ship carrying 276 men and a cargo of grain shipwrecked off the coast of Malta. St. Paul and his companion St. Luke were both on board the ship, which was on its way to Rome. Paul
The fortress city of Mdina Malta. | ADOBE STOCK was being transported there as a prisoner
and Luke was traveling with him as a friend and as Paul’s physician. The shipwreck was described in the New Testament, (Acts 28, 1) where St. Luke wrote, "we found that the island was called Melita."
A church dedicated to St. Paul was built sometime in the 1570s in the city of Valleta, Malta.
When the Roman Empire split into Eastern and Western divisions in the 4th Century, Malta fell under the control of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire from 395 A.D. to 870 A.D. While not much is written
about these four centuries, there is some evidence that Germanic tribes, including the Goths and Vandals, briefly took control of the islands before the Byzantines launched a counter-attack and reclaimed the islands.
Next week. Malta during the Middle Ages.
The Phoenicians inhabited the area now known as Mdina and its surrounding town of Rabat.