The Phoenicians



Once, eight centuries before the birth of Christ, there lived and prospered a people known as the Phoenicians. This is their story leading towards the colonization of the Maltese archipelago where, for at least five hundred years, they imported their unique culture into the heart of the Mediterranean. Unlike the Phoenician cultural traditions that were slow to disappear, these traditions were so deeply entrenched, that they remained evident well into the Roman period, till the third and fourth century Before Christ as witnessed by Saint Paul when he was shipwrecked on the island on his way to Rome. In Malta according to the biblical report, Saint Paul found a barbaric race that did not speak Latin or Greek but Punic.