Melĭta

, an island in the Libyan sea, between Sicily and Africa, now called Malta . The soil was fertile, and the country famous for its wool. It was first peopled by the Phœnicians. St.  Paul was shipwrecked there, and cursed all venomous creatures, which now are not to be found in the whole island. Some, however, suppose that the island on which the Apostle was shipwrecked, was another island of the same name in the Adriatic on the coast of Illyricum, now called Melede . Malta is now remarkable as being the residence of the knights of Malta, formerly of St.  John of Jerusalem, settled there A.D. 1530, by the conce ion of Charles  V. , after their expulsion from Rhodes by the Turks. Strabo , bk. 6 .— Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 7 .— Cicero , Against Verres , bk. 4 , ch. 46 .――Another on the coast of Illyricum, in the Adriatic, now Melede . Pliny , bk. 3 , ch. 26 .――An ancient name of Samothrace. Strabo , bk. 10 .――One of the Nereides. Virgil , Æneid , bk. 5 , li. 825 .