Malta, Gozo and Comino, the Thrinacia of Homer and the Melitē, Phoebe and Lampas of Scylax, form an archipelago in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea inhabited by both Phoenicians and Greeks before the coming of the Romans to those islands. Many geographers mention them, but other authors refer to their importance as places of production of textiles and other natural goods like oil and honey. Of particular importance was the site of the temple of Juno and Hercules known to Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans as well as to Numidians. Malta and Gozo were also praised for their good harbors and stone. The Grand Harbour itself served as an important Byzantine base with its tower and inner harbour, both places bearing Greek names. Malta was converted to Christianity in AD 60 following St Paul’s shipwreck there, where he spent three winter months. The aim of this article is to scrutinize the information about Malta and Gozo in numerous Greek, Roman and Christian sources.

THE GREEKS IN MALTA AND GOZO INTRODUCTION The traditional view of Maltese historians has been that Malta and Gozo were occupied by the Romans at the beginning of the second Punic War in 218 B.C. by taking them over from the Carthaginians, disregarding the fact that on these islands was present also a Greek community; consequently, they left out the Greek period both before 218 B.C. and during the Roman occupation 1. They only referred to the Greek presence with the fall of the Roman Empire and the transfer of the islands to the Eastern Byzantine Empire. After the 8th century B.C., while Malta and Gozo were occupied by the Phoenicians, the same islands were home also to a Greek community. This is known from Greek inscriptions written in Greek which were found in both Malta and Gozo. They refer both to the peoples of Malta and Gozo, and to their administrators and their religion. Apart from these, we have several literary references in Greek on Malta and Gozo: their interest would not have been so strong had not the presence of Greeks on the islands come to their attention. These inscriptions reveal the fact that Malta and Gozo had two different governments, each operating from the capital town of every island: Melítē, that is, Rabat with its Mdina in Malta, and Gaulos, that is, Rabat with its Citadel in Gozo. We learn from the same inscriptions that the religion of Malta and Gozo was then polytheistic, that is, the veneration of Zeus as the supreme god and of other male and female gods. This religion carried its own cult and was looked after by a sect of priests. This Greek and Carthaginian governmental organization, already in existence by 218 B.C., helped the Romans to retain two 10 See for example, Jean Quintin's Insulae Melitae descriptio re-edited and translated into English for the first time by H.

Abstract. This paper considers a number of reactions to and reviews of the editio princeps of a long poem recently published with the title Tristia ex Melitogaudo: Lament in Greek Verse of a XIIth-century Exile on Gozo. The editors clarify a number of points and answer objections raised by various authors.

Book VIII of the Aeneid can be said to be the turning point in Aeneas' fulfilment of his mission indicated to him in Troy. In it Vergil formed two separate artistic structural patterns making up the length of the whole book while, at the same time, elaborating on the significance of the most symbolic object mentioned in the whole of the Aeneid, the Shield of Aeneas. This ecphrasis is characterized by literary embellishments, which compare well with those found in Homer's and Hesiod's poems. Both sections of this book are interrelated, since Hercules, in the site of the future Rome, foreshadows Aeneas, who then receives and lifts the shield representing, at its boss, Augustus' victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. The book ends as it starts, the preparations being underway for the war against Mezentius.1 I wish to thank Prof. Patricia A. Johnston, of Brandeis University, and the anonymous referees for SHT, for the views and remarks they kindly made on this paper. All texts in this paper are taken from R. A. B.

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