Description
A Byzantine poet and native of Sicily in the entourage of King Roger falls out with his king who sends him to exile on the remote Island of Gozo – Melitogaudos – where he writes a long lament in verse.Very much like him, Ovid had been exiled by his Emperor to a far-off island where he pined away giving vent to his frustration in his well—known Tristia and Ex Ponto. Our poet addresses himself to the Vizier of the realm, George of` Antioch, pleading with him to intercede on his behalf with the king to return him to his homeland. ln the course of his wailings the poet speaks of King Roger’s exploits, among which, his attack on Gozo in 1127.This detailed description sheds important new light, especially on Christianity in the Maltese Islands, on a period of Maltese History about which historians have hitherto drawn a complete blank, namely, Arab rule of these islands prior to and post Count Roger’s invasion in 1091.
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