Surgical instruments on a tomb slab in Roman Malta

Abstract

The Maltese Islands fell under the rule of Rome in 216 B.C. With the division of the Roman Empire in A.D. 395, the Maltese archipelago is believed to have formed part of the Eastern or Byzantine Empire. Christianity was introduced into Malta in A.D. 60. As Roman law prohibited the interment of the dead inside the towns, the earliest Maltese Christian cemeteries were established outside the walls of the ancient capital Melita, now Mdina, at Rabat. These burial places consist of a series of catacombs or underground networks of galleries and vaults hewn out of the rock. The main ones are those named after St. Agatha and St. Paul.