The Romans came over to Malta in 218BC, and not encountering much resistance and clearly enjoying the climate, they stayed for about 700 years. Despite this, there’s not a whole lot of evidence of their sojourn on the island, with the notable exception of this villa in Rabat. Like a lot of the major archaeological discoveries on the island, the villa was accidentally discovered by some nineteenth century folk digging holes in the ground for some completely unrelated purpose. Fortunately, the site was reasonably well preserved, particularly the tiled floor which is in remarkably well-maintained condition and forms the centre-piece of the museum.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are a lot of potentially interesting sites in Malta which have been accidentally discovered and then not so accidentally re-covered again, so as a lot of pesky archaeologists don’t descend on the family property and turn it into a tourist attraction. This one avoided such a fate, and is a pretty good place to visit if you’re interested in Romans and what they got up to. It is believed that the house belonged to a very well-to-do member of the Roman establishment on the island, possibly even the governor. The information plaques (is that what those things are called? Probably not.) are more interesting and relevant than you find in a lot of museums in Malta, and it’s a nicely laid out little building. It is not an actual Roman villa by the way, more a structure built over what remains of the original, but done in such a way as to give a feeling for the original. Ave.
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One of the fascinating things about that area is that they are discovering more interesting and possibly important archaeological remains all the time. Trouble is, do you get rid of the 15/16/17th century stuff built around it to expose the older remains? There’s just too much damned history!