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Concept
Melite (ancient city)
Summary
Melite (Melítē) or Melita was an ancient city located on the site of present-day Mdina and Rabat, Malta. It started out as a Bronze Age settlement, which developed into a city called Maleth (𐤌𐤋𐤈, ) under the Phoenicians, and became the administrative centre of the island. The city fell to the Roman Republic in 218 BC, and it remained part of the Roman and later the Byzantine Empire until 870 AD, when it was captured and destroyed by the Aghlabids. The city was then rebuilt and renamed Medina, giving rise to the present name Mdina. It remained Malta's capital city until 1530.
Only a few vestiges of the Punic-Roman city have survived. The most substantial are the ruins of the Domus Romana, in which a number of well-preserved mosaics and statues have been found. Sparse remains of other buildings and parts of the city walls have been excavated, but no visible remains of the city's numerous temples, churches and other public buildings survive.
Melite was located on a strategically important plateau on high ground in the northern part of Malta. The site had been inhabited since prehistory, and by the Bronze Age it was a place of refuge since it was naturally defensible.
The Phoenicians founded the city of Maleth soon after they colonized the island in around the 8th century BC. A number of Punic tombs have been found in Rabat, in the area that would have been outside the walls of Maleth.
Roman rule in Malta was established in the early stages of the Second Punic War. In 218 BC, Roman consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus sailed with his fleet from Sicily to Melite, and the Carthaginian commander Hamilcar surrendered without offering much resistance. The island was subsequently integrated into the Roman province of Sicilia, and Maleth became known as Melite. The city was regarded as a haven, far from the politics of Rome.
During the early Roman occupation, Melite had the status of a foederata civitas like other cities in Sicilia such as Messana (modern Messina) and Tauromenium (modern Taormina).
Official source
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