Reflections on the literary sources on Byzantine Malta

Abstract

Byzantium was a Greek colony at the mouth of the Thracian Bosphorus, occupying an important strategic position. This site was chosen by Constantine the Great in A.D. 324 as his imperial residence and renamed Constantinopolis nova (or altera) Roma. Since it was a nova/ altera Roma, the people called themselves Romaioi, and not Byzantines, and Constantine’s successors continued to regard themselves as the legitimate emperors of Rome until its capture by Mehmet II in 1453. The ‘Byzantine’ nomenclature is a convention, coined by French scholars during the 17th century to describe the Roman Empire in the East. [Excerpt]