The exile to Malta of the entire male population of the town of Celano (Italy) in 1223

by themainheadcase

I was reading the Wikipedia article on the Maltese people and the article mentions that there have been many events in the county's history that influenced it's demographics and first on the list of such events is the exile to Malta of the entire male population of the town of Celano (Italy) in 1223.

This sounds so strange and it got me intrigued, but there's no link to an article explaining it. Can someone explain how and why this happened?

nekoyokoshima