Byzantine Malta

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While the Arab period in Malta is to some extent covered by later Arab historians, and even the much earlier Roman period is mentioned in Roman records, the centuries in between are a vacuum. Any search for recorded information on the decades of Germanic control in the century when Malta passed from Roman imperial rule to eastern Roman rule, remains fruitless.

After the collapse of Rome, Malta remained under Roman influence as the Byzantine Empire was essentially the “eastern arm” of the Roman Empire. The western arm evolved into other civilisations while the eastern one became the Byzantine Empire, which controlled Malta. However for more than three centuries written sources barely allow us to catch a glimpse of what was going on in the islands. [1] However the situation is better where archaeological evidence for the period 500-1200 is concerned.

The history of the Maltese islands after the fifth century collapse of the Western Roman Empire has been reconstructed by Dr Charles Dalli mainly on the pattern of Sicily, since events in Malta closely following those in Sicily. From 440 to 530AD the Maltese islands were taken over by competing Germanic kings as the Vandal and Ostrogoth kingdoms carved up much of the central Mediterranean region between them. However with the Byzantine victory against the Vandal kingdom in 533, the North African territories were added to the eastern Roman Empire. Two years later, Byzantine forces took Sicily, laying the foundations of Byzantine government in the island which was to last for more than three centuries.

There can be little doubt that this control was extended to the Maltese islands by the mid-sixth century. The new masters of the central Mediterranean would make use of the Maltese archipelago as a strategically located naval and military base. The archaeology of the period confirms this with evidence of commerce between Malta, Sicily, and North Africa.

Because of Muslim expansion against Byzantine power in the eight century, Malta’s role in the eastern Roman empire changed significantly from a military base and trading outpost between Sicily and North Africa, to an outlying guard and Muslim target. A role which would be repeated in the next thousand years of Christian-Muslim conflict in the central Mediterranean. Since Malta took an increasingly military role in Byzantine strategy to combat Muslim expansion, it is unlikely that the Maltese islands were spared the decades of warfare leading up to the Arab conquest of Malta in 870.

Archaeological remains [1] indicate that the Byzantine walled town of Melite, Malta’s only important settlement, emerged from the ruins of the siege of 869-870 to make way for a Muslim medina from the late 800s to the eleventh century. In the mid-eleventh century the Byzantines tried to recapture Malta [2] however the Arabs just managed to win the day by granting their slave-soldiers freedom in return for defeating the Byzantine forces, thus bringing to a close the Byzantine chapter of Maltese history.

PRIMARY BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Satellite, Sentinel, Stepping Stone. Medieval Malta in Sicily’s Orbit – Charles Dalli

REFERENCES:

1. Bruno 2004
2. Nathaniel Cutajar 2001