The Phoenicians or Canaanites discovered Malta at around 800 BC. These experienced shipbuilders, navigators, and mariners were the first international traders to set foot in Malta – bringing along the benefit of their advanced literate civilisation. Plutarch commented that they “excelled in the arts, and in writing and literature, as well as in naval warfare and administering the empire”. They probably sheltered their fleets in harbours they called “Qala” at Mġarr in Gozo and at Qala Frana in Marsaxlokk near Ħal Far – which for the Phoenicians meant ‘departure’. The numerous villages that they founded include the town of Rabat in Malta, as well as Rabat in Gozo.

The Carthaginians succeeded the Phoenicians and took possession of Malta at around 600 BC. Although Malta was never a Greek colony, it is clear that during this period there existed a strong Greek influence as evidenced in pottery, inscriptions and coins that have been excavated from that period.

Within the logistic facilities afforded by Malta’s sheltered natural harbour up to Marsa, the Carthaginians established a strong naval base for their superior navy which was composed largely of quinquiremes – the five banked battleships of over 300 oars. It is probable that Galley Greek served as a naval base and that was therefore the reason for Hannibal’s setting foot in the Borgo – then known as Melita and Hammuna.

The Romans possibly captured Malta when they attacked it in 257 BC during the first Punic War (264-241 BC). However, had they done so, they must not have occupied it for a long time. In the Second Punic War (218-201 BC) the Romans realised the strategic importance of the Carthaginian naval base in Malta and Titus Sempronius immediately crossed over to Malta in 218 BC in order to secure the surrender of the Carthaginian Commander Hamilcar son of Gisco and his 2000 strong garrison.

Malta retained its strong Punic (Carthaginian) traditions and language for many years and it was only after a long and gradual process that the Maltese Islands became “Romanised” and the Islands settled comfortably into an efficient administration system under the protection of the “Pax Romana”.

Portrait of Claudius

The general situation in Malta during the Roman domination was described by Diodorus Siculus in c 40 BC. “To the South of Sicily are three islands each of them with towns and harbours offering shelter to all ships cast thither by storms. The first is Melita 800 stadia from Syracusa having many convenient ports. The inhabitants abound in opulence, for they have artifices for every kind of work; but they excel most in their manufacture of linen, which is beyond anything of the kind, both in firmness of its texture and its softness. Their houses are very beautiful and magnificently ornamented with pediments projecting forward and the most exquisite stucco work. The inhabitants have become very wealthy and increased in reputation and splendour.”

The Romans developed the port facilities in Xlendi, St Paul’s Bay, Salina, Burmarrad and Marsa leading to an expansion in trade and the export of Maltese products. They improved the water supply, the irrigation system, and the agricultural production of wheat and olives, while also building villas, baths, fortifications (coastal lookout towers), temples, and tombs. Inscriptions and relics were left behind witnessing the progress, prosperity and fairly high cultural level at the time. It is small wonder that Cicero once expressed his wish to retire in Malta.

In 70 BC, the Roman provincial Governor of Sicily and Malta, Caius Verres, plundered and desecrated various temples. When brought to justice, Cicero accused him that in his three year rule he robbed the temple of Juno of many of its votive offerings. According to documentation, these included sacred ivory tusks as well as four hundred jars of honey, a great quantity of Maltese linen, fifty cushions for sofas, and a number of candelabra and garments. These accusations reveal the standard of living and the quality of life that was prevailing in Malta at that time.

An important event during the Roman occupation was the shipwreck of St Paul in 60 AD. In the Acts of the Apostles, St Luke reveals that on his voyage from Caesarea to Rome along with St Paul, they were shipwrecked on Malta where they were received by the leading citizen Publius. St Luke stated that the “barbarians” showed them “no little courtesy”. The Shipwreck of St Paul ushered the gradual conversion of the Islands to Christianity – a change that the Romans initially tolerated, especially in contrast with their severe persecution of the Jews.

Painting of St.Paul's Shipwreck (St.Paul's Parish Church - Rabat , Malta)

Under the protection of the ‘Pax Romana’, Malta flourished into an age of wealth and prosperity. Renaming the island ‘Melita’ after its excellent honey, the Romans built villas, baths, fortifications, temples, and tombs, and apart from improving the irrigation system, they also introduced the agricultural production of wheat and olives. At the time, the inhabitants also excavated extensive burial chambers which later developed into catacombs, especially around the main city of Melite. These were eventually utilised by Christians and Jews to practise their rites.

The Roman period brought about Malta’s first contact with the new Latin Civilisation which fired the emergence of modern Europe. The Romans left their mark in Malta not only in the order, legislation, organisation and systems, but to a greater extent also by re-shaping Malta’s artistic heritage and cultural traits thanks to the introduction of their Graeco-Latin forms of art and civilisation.

With the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Malta came under the jurisdiction of the East under Constantine of Constantinople. The Byzantine era (395-869) brought about more freedom of religion, and indeed several monasteries were set up while quite a few chapels and churches were constructed. It is also said that as early as the 500’s Malta even had its own bishop and a papal estate in Gozo.

As the two monotheistic religions of Judaism and Christianity flourished throughout Europe; the Arab World – originally animist by religion, worshipping such natural phenomena as trees, mountains, and water springs – united under one great God with the birth of Islam in AD 612. This led the Arab World into a most thorough process of Islamisation and Arabisation which was completed by the mid 700’s, and was in turn followed by Islam’s expansion into the Mediterranean and mainland Europe. Malta withstood its first Arab incursion in 869 as the invading Arabs failed to take Mdina. However they returned a year or two later and despite strong resistance from the occupying Byzantines, they ousted them out and took control of the islands.

brought with them the accumulated wisdom of centuries-old learning from Syria, Persia, Hellenised Alexandria, and ancient Babylon – along with the Islamic assimilation and improved knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, science, and medicine. Apart from introducing new forms of art, they also encouraged reading, writing, and tertiary education. It is small wonder then that they left the MalteseFar from threatening Malta’s Christian European culture, the Arabs eventually revitalised it. They with the greatest heritage possible – that of their language.

The Arabs in Malta left their Arabic stamp in the names of numerous villages such as Mġarr, Msida, Mqabba, Għajn Sielem, ix-Xagħra and Żurrieq, as well as in those of the islets of Comino, and Filfla. They pioneered the use of the sienja – an animal powered mechanical device that drew well-water onto land – and introduced the cultivation of cotton and citrus trees. Being highly skilled mariners they probably introduced the sailing rig of the Gozo boat, and as the leading merchants of the central and western Mediterranean they expanded Malta’s export trade, also including the Maltese in the lucrative piracy expeditions and slave trade. Some believe that in those times the slave population in Malta exceeded that of free men.

A late medieval terracotta oil lamp holder, known as mnara, for multiple lights.

There is no doubt that the Arabs concentrated their presence on Mdina and Rabat in Malta, and Rabat in Gozo. However it is indeed their maritime activities that may have led the Arabs to set up a castle on the promontory of one of the peninsulas that jutted out into the Grand Harbour. It was around this very castle that the ‘Borgo del Castello’ eventually gave birth to the Cottonera region that we know today.

Count Roger the Norman successfully attacked Malta in 1091, but he simply imposed the payment of an annual fee on the Arab rulers, who continued governing Malta. It was his son, Count Roger II, who in 1127 installed a permanent Christian government in Malta.

In the Middle Ages all towns and cities under the Kingdom of Sicily had a town Council and in Malta’s case, this was known as the Universitá. When under the direct control of the King in Palermo and later under of Aragon under the Viceroy of Sicily, the Maltese Islands belonged to the regio demanio. Under Monroe as well as under the Knights of St John they belonged to the regio feudale and therefore had a feudal status. Under British rule Malta had a Colonial Status until it acquired its Independence in 1964.