Tristia ex Melitogaudo

"The poet had evidently displeased Roger II of Sicily who banished him to Gozo (Melitogaudo), a tiny island off Malta. Both islands were used as places of exile by the Byzantine emperors and continued to be so until the fifteenth century. During his enforced sojourn there (some years between 1135 and 1151) the poet wrote this Tristia (the original title is lost) for the same purpose as Ovid produced his Tristia ex Ponto: to beg leave to return home. Ovid appealed (unsuccessfully) to Augustus, while the Sicilian exile addressed his appeal to George of Antioch, to whom he was perhaps related.... The Tristia contains references to the poet’s life in Gozo and to then still recent Norman conquest of the Maltese archipelago from the Arabs. The editors have reopened the most hotly debated issue among students of Maltese history in recent years. Did Christianity survive three centuries (800-1090) of Muslim rule?"--Book review, Parergon 27.1 (2010), pages 197-199.