Malta (, Melétēs) was ruled by the Byzantine Empire, from the time of the Byzantine conquest of Sicily in 535–6 to 869–870, when the islands were occupied by Arabs. Evidence for the three centuries of Byzantine rule in Malta is very limited, and at times ambiguous. Historians theorise that Byzantine Malta was exposed to the same phenomena affecting the Central Mediterranean, namely a considerable influx of Greek settlers and Hellenic culture, administrative changes brought about by the reorganisation of Sicily along the lines of a Byzantine theme, and significant naval activity in the Mediterranean following the rise of Islam.
Byzantine sources are scant on the Maltese islands, although a handful of records group them together as the Gaudomelete (, Gaudomelétē), a term that first appears in the pseudoepigraphical Acts of Peter and Paul. The islands were a place of relegation and exile. With Muslim expansion in North Africa, Malta shifted from a military base and trade post linking Sicily and the other Byzantine possessions in the Italian Peninsula to the Exarchate of Africa, to an outlying satellite and guardpost of the Byzantine Theme of Sicily.
Historians have concluded that Malta played a limited strategic role in the Byzantine Empire. The subsequent Arab conquest led to a complete break between the Byzantine era and later periods. While there are studies about alleged Byzantine or Christian survival, the sparseness of evidence implies a weak case for a lasting Byzantine legacy in Malta.
Background The earliest mentions of Malta in this era are scant, and usually inferred in passages relating to Sicily. In a passage by Victor Vitensis, Bishop of Vita, historians infer that towards the end of the fifth century, the Maltese islands were conquered by Vandals from their Kingdom in North Africa, and then handed to Odoacre, the Ostrogothic king of Italy. Historians theorise that Malta remained in Vandal hands from around 455 to 476, and then granted to Odoacre as tribute, before passing on to Theodoric after this defeat of Odoacre in 493.
There is no evidence of a Bishop of Malta before 553, with no record appearing of a Maltese bishop attending any council in Vandal Africa. However, as no episcopal lists survive from Africa, historians are unable to assess whether Malta had a bishop or whether the islands formed part of the African church at this early stage.
Malta suffers from a lack of attention in Byzantine sources, translating into a long-lasting perception amongst historians that the archipelago lay at the margins of the strategic, political and military interests of the Byzantine Empire. This view was only overturned in recent years, following advances in Maltese archaeology. Analysis of ceramics found that the Byzantines still sent navies into the Western Mediterranean well into the 9th century – confirming that Malta was a strategic stepping stone in the defence system around North Africa, Sicily and the Balearics. Although occasionally raided by Arabs naval forces, Malta – together with Sardinia and the Balearics - provided the Byzantines with a good strategic base in the central and western Mediterranean, enabling them to maintain an economic and military presence.
The trade volume into the Maltese islands was not only military in nature. Local political elites were also supplied with Eastern Mediterranean goods. Sigillographic evidence concludes Maltese elites included archontes, bishops and members of the ecclesiastical communities. The islands' commercial vitality, reflecting their strategic position in the Mediterranean, and a degree of autonomy which probably allowed the elites to bridge the gap between Muslim Africa and "Byzantine Italies." Maltese elites took on an active stance and engaged in political and trade exchanges with Muslim communities in North Africa – proven by finds of Umayyad coins on the islands and the finding of a seal belonging to Niketas – archon and droungarios of Malta – in Tunisia.
Early Byzantine sources on Malta
Justinianic period
One of the earliest mentions of the Maltese islands can be found in a list of donations by Emperor Constatine I in the early fourth century, which includes a grant to the Lateran baptistery of a massa with revenues of 222 solidi which was apparently located on the island of Gozo. However, the first proper mention of Medieval Malta in the context of the Eastern Roman Empire is found in Procopius' Bellum Vandalicum detailing the Byzantine campaign in North Africa. The Byzantine general Belisarius is described "touching at" Malta in 533, while the Roman expeditionary force was sailing from Kaukana to North Africa. However, the Greek verb used can mean either "landed" or "approached." In the same passage, Procopius describes Malta as dividing the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian seas, indicating that the islands might have lain on a maritime border separating Vandal and Byzantine spheres. The passage does not say that Belisarius conquered the islands, or that the Maltese islands were already in Byzantine hands. In fact, Malta is not included in the Synecdmus of Hierocles, which details a list of cities belonging to the Empire in 527/8.
Malta probably passed on to the Byzantines around the time of their conquest of Sicily in 535. A further quote in Procopius' Bellum Gothicum describing the war against the Gothic kingdom of Italy, suggests that Malta formed part of the Empire by 544, although it does not mention the islands specifically. The final reference in Procopius regarding Malta refers to 550, regarding the voyage of Artabanes to Sicily. Appointed magister militum per Thracias, Artabanes was sent to replace the aged senator Liberius in command of an expedition under way against Sicily, which had recently been overrun by the Ostrogoth king Totila. Artabanes failed to catch up with the expedition before it sailed for Sicily, and his own fleet was driven back and scattered by severe storms in the Ionian Sea,; . with Artabanes himself being unexpectedly saved after landing in Malta. Although there are suggestions that Artabanes reached Meleda instead of Malta, both the manuscript's tradition and geographic probability favour Malta.
Other sources on Malta from the Justinian dynasty are limited, with few details on the islands' history. The sixth-century writer Arator described Malta as a statio, a port of call for ships, although this is used in reference to St. Paul's shipwreck on the islands, and should not be used to infer the naval status of Malta, although reference to the harbours of Malta and Gozo are found in later Arabic texts.
Bishops of Malta
In 553, Julianus, Bishop of Malta (Latin: Iulianus episcopus Melitensis) is mentioned in Constitutum de Tribus Capitulis of Pope Virgilius, however there may be some ambiguity regarding the name and link with Malta due to inconsistencies in the names in different manuscripts. The first reference of a Bishop of Malta appears in three letters from Pope Gregory I, with the Pope asking Bishop Lucillus of Malta in 592 to ensure that the Maltese clergy holding lands belonging to the African church should pay the tax due on them. The lands are assumed by historians to be in Malta, and their link with the African church may be linked with Vandalic rule in the previous century. The second letter, dated October 598, asks the Bishop of Syracuse to depose Lucillus for an unspecified crime, to punish his accomplices by putting them in monasteries and removing their honours. A phrase about the demotion of soldiers implies that Malta had a military garrison at the time. Pope Gregory then asks the Bishop of Syracuse to instruct the clerus and the populus to elect a new bishop. The third letter, dated to September or October 599, asks Romanus the defensor Siciliae, to make sure that Lucillus and his son hand over the property taken from the church to the new bishop, Traianus. While there appears not to be enough evidence to cast Malta as a suffragan bishopric of Syracuse this early, the letters appear to reveal close ecclesiastical and administrative bonds between the Maltese see and the Syracuse bishopric. Malta may have been similarly linked with the secular administration of Sicily, as suggested by a civil geographic list compiled by George of Cyprus around c. 603 - c. 606.
Byzantine exiles in Malta Malta was used as a place for exiles, as found in passages from two historians. In the Historia syntomos, Patriarch Nikephoros details how Emperor Heraclius sent Theodorus, a magister by rank, to the island of Gaudomelete, ordering the dux of the place to amputate one of his feet upon arrival. This reveals that by 637, the date of the revolt which led to the exile of John Athalarichos and Theodorus, Malta may have been governed by military officers, similar to the way Sicily and Italy were being ruled. The chronicler Theophanes describes how in 790, Emperor Constantine VI punished the leaders of the revolt in the Armeniac Theme by branding their faces and exiling the leaders to Sicily and "the other islands."Theophanes, p. 469
Administration
Secular government A seal dated to the eight century was found in Tunis, belonging to Nicetas, archon and droungarios of Malta, (, + Nikētas dronggariōs kaì árkhonti Melétēs) with historians deducing that Malta may have been ruled by a high-ranking naval official, in command of a small fleet. Other historians have gone beyond this analysis, saying that Malta was the base of an important naval squadron under direct imperial, rather than thematic, control. However, the lack of evidence and sources, as well as historical close links between Sicily and Malta, are seen to count against both the existence of such a governing structure for Malta, as well as the existence of an important Byzantine naval base on the islands. A case could be made, however, for a Byzantine official being both the land army commander of a droungos, who had also taken over the role of an archon, or civil governor of a town.
Recent excavations have shed more light on Malta's role as a trading post, with regional political powers having strong vested interests in Malta during the 8th century. The islands are seen to act as a somehow privileged territory, acting as a bridge between North Africa and the south of Italy. Malta was capable of importing large amounts of goods from far off regions, and of links with both Byzantine and Arab trading networks. Urban cores, such as Melite, were comparatively affluent, politically powerful and enjoyed access to various imported goods, while peripheral areas such as Safi, had access to more basic material culture.
Ecclesiastical government Historians contend that the transfer of Sicilian dioceses from the Patriarchate of Rome to Constantinople, and the elevation of Syracuse to metropolitan status, obscure the ecclesiastical organisation of Malta during this period. No Bishops of Malta appeared at Roman synods or in Ecumenical councils in the East in the seventh, eight or ninth century. A Maltese bishop named Manas may have attended the Eight Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in 869-870, and is identified with a Maltese bishop held as a captive in Palermo by the Aghlabids in 878. However, no Maltese bishop is identified in the council's acts, making historians' identification unwarranted.