Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/418

388 the desolate and unprotected rock which fell into the possession of the Order of St. John in the year 1530.

The antecedent history of Malta is not important, and may be very briefly narrated. It was originally colonized by the Phœnicians, and in many parts it is rich in remains of that people. About 755 n.c. the Greeks, returning from the siege of Troy, overran the Mediterranean, founded some cities in Calabria, and amongst other acquisitions established themselves in Malta, driving out the Phœnicians. Prior to this event the island had been known by the name of Ogygia, which was now changed into that of Meitas. It remained in the undisturbed possession of the Greeks for 200 years, at the expiration of which period the Carthaginians disputed with them its sovereignty, and eventually succeeded in wresting it from their hands. In the second Punic war Sempronius established the dominion of Rome in Malta, driving out its Carthaginian inhabitants. The Greeks were, however, allowed to remain, and their laws and customs were not interfered with. The island was attached to the government of Sicily, and was ruled by a pro-prætor or deputy governor, dependent on that province. Whilst under Roman sway, Malta attained a high pitch of civilization and refinement. Situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, within a short distance from the shores of three continents, it speedily became a thriving mart for much of the commerce of Rome. Its manufactures of cotton and linen, and its public buildings—chiefly temples erected in honour of its favourite deities—were justly celebrated throughout that part of the world. On the division of the Roman empire, the island of Malta fell to the lot of Constantine, and from that moment its decadence may be first dated. In the fifth century it was seized successively by the Vandals and Goths; and although in the next century, Belisarius, the general of Justinian, drove out the barbarians, and once more established Roman dominion, the island never recovered its former prosperity.

The rapid spread of Mahometanism in the eighth and ninth centuries brought Malta under the sway of the Saracens, who, in the early portion of the latter century, exterminated the Greek population, and established a government in their place dependent on the emir of Sicily. Much that is Saracenic, both in