Classical Roman authors have written how in the year 217 BC the Roman army raided Malta and laid the island to waste. However, the great Roman historian Livy asserts that in the year 218 BC the Carthaginian army under Hamilcar was defeated and the Roman consul Titus established Roman rule in Malta. 

The Romans set about reforming the island by inculcating the Hellenic-Roman principles of a centralized government strengthened by single religion and coinage.  For the time being, however, the Mediterranean remained largely under Carthaginian dominion, and so the Romans used the island mainly as a military base. Between the years 135 and 132 BC Malta was used as a place of exile, a prison and a traffic-station for the transfer of slaves and prisoners.

As the decades rolled on and Rome became the supreme power in the Mediterranean, Malta lost its military strategic role. The Romanization of Malta was in full swing. Our ancestors learnt the use of the calendar as instituted by Romulus, the first king of Rome.

Malta was granted self-governing constitutional rights and allowed its own representation at Rome. Furthermore, Malta and Gozo were given the title of “Civitas Sine Foedere Libera”, which means “A State, Autonomous and Free”. The geographical importance of Malta meant that the person in command, either civil or military, was not a Proconsul chosen by the Senate of Rome but a Procurator appointed by the Emperor himself and selected from his top-ranking officers. Evidence of this is contained in an inscription found among the remains of a temple at Mtarfa. The inscription says that this temple, originally built in the year 23 BC, was restored by “Procurator Melitae et Gauli’, ‘By the Procurator of Malta and Gozo’. Early in the second century, the Maltese were granted Roman citizenship, and Malta and Gozo given the new title of ‘Municipium’.

Malta entertained some prominent visitors during its Roman period.  Cicero planned to visit the island during his period of political disgrace, but never actually got there. The most influential visitor, however, was Saint Paul, who was shipwrecked on the island in 60 AD on his way to Rome.

Saint Paul the Apostle set foot on Malta in the year 60 AD. We have a thrilling description of this episode in Chapter 28 of the Biblical Acts of the Apostles written by Saint Luke.

Paul's acts of healing: the islanders' gratitude

In that part of the island were estates belonging to the governor, whose name was Publius. This man welcomed us and entertained us most kindly for three days. Now it happened that Publius' father was lying ill with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and after prayer laid his hands on him and healed him. After that all the other sick people on the island came forward and were cured. Consequently they loaded us with presents, and when the time came for us to sail they provided us with everything we needed.

The Christian faith took its time to spread since it came into conflict with Roman Law.

It was only in the fourth century AD that the Emperor Constantine approved of the Christian Church disseminating the creed as well as building churches and cathedrals. Any epigraphic and archaeological evidence that could throw light on the degree of acceptance the Christian belief gained in Malta between 60 AD and the fourth century is sparce, nevertheless, there have been many discoveries at the Church of San Pawl Milqi (Church of the ‘Welcomed Saint Paul’) at Burmarrad that possibly testify to the arrival of Saint Paul in Malta.

The most important evidence is a slab of stone scratched, on one side, with the Greek letter ‘Tau’ and an image of a bald-headed Saint

Saint Paul with sword in hand, and, on the reverse, the galley on which the Saint came to Malta.

The Pauline tradition has been assiduously fostered in Malta since at least the early modern period. Saint Paul's Grotto in Rabat became the focus of a strong devotion  The ever increasing popularity of the site - visited by numerous pilgrims and travellers - induced the Cathedral chapter of Mdina to declare that Saint Paul's grotto was "the foundation stone of the Church in Malta'. Such an important place had to be duly honoured.
 
The references to Malta in the surviving literature of Roman authors like Livy and others are scant. However, important monuments like the Roman Domus at Rabat, artistic statues like the bust of Tiberius, underground cold and tepid baths at Ghajn Tuffieha, as well as other works in mosaic, tombs, amphorae, coinage and images of Roman gods, are all testimonials of a bustling civilization that grew continuously in Malta under the Roman rule.

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