Malta before 870 : some Libyan connections

Abstract

In Roman times Malta was linked to Africa in various ways. The island lay on routes from Sicily to Libya, that is to Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, but it was too far to the east of the axis between Sicily and Carthage to have a major strategic importance.ln fact Malta came into the Punic sphere only when Carthage became interested in Libya, and the Romans, like the Tunisian Muslims centuries later, were remarkably slow to conquer the island. Even after the Roman conquest, many of Malta's contacts were with the Punic world of Carthage which lay to the west, and following 870 Malta was again dominated from Tunisia, whose Aghlabid rulers had conquered the island; possibly there were Tunisian influences not only in speech and religion but also in matters such as water supplies and housing. Even before the Muslim conquest of 870 there may have been contacts with Tunisia.