Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "AKRAGAS Ancient city SICILY".
Graeco-Roman city founded ca. 582 B.C. by Rhodio-Cretan colonists
from Gela led by Aristonoos and Pystilos. The new city, which took its name from
the river along its E boundary, stood on a steep hill defended on three sides
by the abrupt drop of the natural (tufa) rock. On the S side the hill slopes gently
down to the lofty ridge, on which the temples stand, and opens toward the sea.
This natural position is described and praised by Polybios (9.27).
In its early years the city was ruled by an oligarchic government.
About 570 B.C. it came under the tyrant Phalaris, who carried out an energetic
military and political program to extend Akragan territory, conquering Sikanian
towns of the interior and even threatening Himera. At his death (ca. 554 B.C.)
Phalaris was succeeded by other tyrants such as Alkamenes and Alkandros. During
the second half of the 6th c. B.C. the city gained prosperity by the production
and export of grain, wine, and olives, as well as by the breeding of livestock.
In this period Akragas minted its first silver coins, with an eagle on the obverse
and a crab on the reverse. The city reached the peak of its military and political
power under Theron, of the family of the Emmenids (488-473 B.C.), who ruled with
justice and moderation, though he continued Phalaris' expansionist policy. He
conquered Himera, provoking Carthaginian intervention. In 480 B.C. the Carthaginians
were thoroughly defeated by a Greek army led by Theron and his brother-in-law
Gelon. After this victory Akragas undertook a grandiose building program, including
the Temple to Olympian Zeus and the system of aqueducts planned by the architect
Phaiax. Pindar lived at the court of Theron.
A semi-aristocratic government followed the tyrants, and was in turn
superseded by a democratic constitution; a notable role in this change was played
by Empedokles. Until the end of the 5th c. B.C. Akragas enjoyed a long period
of prosperity and splendor, disturbed only by a Sikel revolt led by Ducetius,
who was defeated at the Akragan border around 450 B.C. The Akragans' wealth, enjoyment
of life, and urge to erect splendid public and private buildings were so great
that Empedokles remarked that his fellow citizens "ate as if they would die
the next day; and built as if they would never die".
At the end of the 5th c. the Carthaginians, resuming their attempt
to conquer Sicily, captured Himera and Selinus and marched quickly toward Akragas.
After a long siege the city was taken in 406 B.C.; temples and shrines were burnt
and sacked, the whole city was razed to the ground. For many decades Akragas lay
abandoned; it was rebuilt and repopulated only after 338 B.C. by the new lord
of Syracuse, the Corinthian Timoleon, who defeated the Carthaginians and restored
peace and democratic governments in the Sicilian towns. Akragas' new colonists,
who were joined by the former inhabitants of the city, came from Elea and were
led by Megellus and Pheristos. In this period the city expanded considerably and
enjoyed a certain prosperity. Between 286 and 280 B.C. it came under the tyrant
Phintias, who tried in vain to restore the city to its former power. At his death,
all hopes of freedom rested on Pyrrhos, who tried to expel the Carthaginians from
Sicily and managed to conquer Akragas in 276 B.C. When Pyrrhos' expedition failed,
Akragas came again under Carthaginian domination and suffered the conflict between
Rome and Carthage in the first and second Punic wars. In 262, 255, and finally
in 210 B.C., Akragas was besieged and occupied by the Roman army. From this moment
onward the city disappeared as a political entity although under Roman domination
it enjoyed a lasting peace and a notable economic recovery. It was repopulated
by Roman colonists in 207 B.C. and again in the Augustan period. Under Roman administration
Agrigentum was civitas decumana, though it retained civic offices of Greek type.
In the Imperial period, besides its usual agricultural production, the city developed
a textile industry and the extraction of sulphur; it also had an important commercial
harbor, the Emporium, cited by Strabo and Ptolemy. With the spread of Christianity,
the end of the Roman empire, and the subsequent Byzantine domination, Agrigentum
rapidly declined. The temples were abandoned or transformed into Christian basilicas;
the city area became progressively smaller and the hill of the temples was used
for cemeteries and catacombs. When the Arabs invaded it in 825, the city was reduced
to a village.
During Greek and Roman times the city occupied a large square area
delimited by ravines and by a powerful circuit of fortification walls which, in
their original form, probably went back to the 6th c. B.C. On the S side the wall
follows a winding course to its SE corner, formed by the so-called Temple of Juno.
In this stretch the scant remains of Gate I are followed by a powerful pincer
bastion to block a canyon that provided easy access to the city. This bastion
was formed by two ashlar walls meeting at an angle and defended by a strong square
tower. Gate II, called the Geloan Gate, opened farther S; it was cut into the
rock and spanned a road which, from the valley of the river Akragas, climbed up
to the city between steep cliffs protected by walls; one can still see today the
deep furrows made by wheeled traffic. On the ridge immediately to the W of the
Temple of Juno stood Gate III, of which only a few remains survive together with
the road level and the vehicle tracks. From this point the fortifications ran
along the S edge of the temple hill and were partly cut into the natural rock.
To the W of the Temple of Herakles was Gate IV, today called the Golden Gate.
It was the most important city gate, and led toward the sea, to the Emporium;
there are now no traces of its defenses. The walls continue S of the Temple of
Zeus and the Shrine of the Chthonian Divinities; Gate V was in a set-back of the
walls and was protected on the right by a bastion projecting ca. 25 m. Today the
gate is blocked by tumbled masonry. Beyond Gate V other stretches of the walls
have been brought to light, with postern gates and square towers up to the SW
corner. Along the W side, the walls resume a winding course to Gate VI, probably
a dipylon defended by two towers. Farther N Gate VII was also defended by towers
and a projecting bastion. At this point the fortifications curved in an ample
arc toward the E and then back to the foot of the acropolis. Gates VIII and IX
were built in this stretch. The whole N side of the town was protected only by
the rock scarp; to the NW it included the hill called di Girgenti on which the
modern town is built, and to the NE the other peak called the Athenian Rock, which
most scholars identify with the lophos athenaios mentioned by Polybios. Along
the circuit of the walls, as if in defense of the city, rose the series of temples
and sanctuaries which still form the greatest archaeological attraction of Agrigentum.
Starting from the NE corner, on the slopes of the Athenian Rock, one sees first
the Sanctuary of Demeter. In the center are the foundations of its temple in antis
(30.2 x 13.3 m), on which, in the Middle Ages, the Normans built the small church
of St. Biagio, partly incorporating into its structure the cella of the Greek
temple. This latter dates from 480-460 B.C. and carried a stone sima with lion
head water spouts. Along the N side of the temple are two round altars with bothroi,
typical of the cult of Chthonian divinities. On its S side the sanctuary was closed
by a long retaining wall; access to the temple was by means of two roads cut into
the rock and still preserved with their deep furrows cut by the chariots' wheels.
Nearby, but outside the walls at the foot of the rock scarp, lies another Sanctuary
of Demeter, of pre-Hellenic origin. It consists of two natural grottos from which
water flowed, and which were found filled with terracotta busts of Demeter and
Kore. In the archaic period a rectangular building with inward leaning walls was
erected in front of the grottos; it was probably a cistern that gathered the water
of the caves and channeled it into various troughs on the outside. At a later
phase the sanctuary was enclosed by a trapezoidal wall and the entrance was flanked
by pilasters.
Another small rock sanctuary, with little niches for votive pinakes
cut into the cliff, lies farther S to the side of Gate II. The temple hill proper
formed the S side of the city; on its highest point is the so-called Temple of
Juno (38.15 x 16.9 m), Doric peripteral (6 x 13). The conditions of the ground
required the construction of a massive platform which increases the upward thrust
of the building. On the N side the columns, the epistyle and part of the frieze
are standing, but on the other three sides only the columns are partially preserved.
The door leading from the pronaos into the cella is flanked by piers with traces
of stairways to the roof; the opisthodomos was inaccessible from the cella. The
temple is dated ca. 460-440 B.C., and was restored in Roman times. To the E of
the temple lie the large foundations of its altar. Descending along the ridge,
where the rock is honeycombed with Early Christian and Byzantine arched tombs,
one reaches the so-called Temple of Concord. Its exceptional state of preservation
is due to the fact that in the 6th c. A.D. the temple (to the Dioskouroi?) was
transformed into a Christian church to SS. Peter and Paul. The temple (39.4 x
16.9 m) is Doric peripteral (6 x 13) and dates from ca. 450-440 B.C. Columns,
pediments, and entablature up to the level of the cornice are still standing.
The cella, with pronaos, opisthodomos, and piers, with inner stairways, now appears
transformed by its adaptation to a Christian church: the rear wall is missing
and the side walls are pierced by 12 arches; the pronaos shows evidence of its
change into a sacristy and bishop's lodgings. The whole area between the so-called
Temple of Concord and the next temple (of Herakles) is filled with Roman graves
and Christian catacombs and cemeteries. The Roman necropolis contains heroa in
the Hellenistic tradition, cist graves, and sarcophagi; the most notable structure
is the so-called Tomb of Theron near the Golden Gate. It is a typical Hellenistic
heroon of Asia Minor form, dating from the 1st c. B.C.; it consists of a square
podium surmounted by a chamber with engaged Attic-Ionic columns at the corners,
and a Doric entablature.
The Christian cemeteries lie around and under the modern Villa Aurea,
with rock-cut tombs and catacombs formed by corridors with arched entrances and
round halls adapted from ancient cisterns. On the crest above the Golden Gate
stands the Temple of Herakles, perhaps mentioned by Cicero (Verr. 2.4.43). It
is the earliest of Akragas' temples, datable to the end of the 6th c. B.C. because
of the shape of columns and capitals, the elongated plan of the foundations (67
x 25.34 m) and the ratio of the facade columns to those of the flanks (6 x 15).
It is a Doric peripteral temple, of which 9 columns still stand or have been re-erected,
8 of them on the S side. From this building come parts of the stone entablature
with lion head water spouts (at present on display in the National Museum) which
can be assigned to a restoration of the temple during the first half of the 5th
c. B.C. Remains of the altar were found E of the temple. Beyond the Golden Gate
one sees the ruins of the colossal Temple of Olympian Zeus, begun after the victory
of Himera and left unfinished at the time of the Carthaginian destruction in 406
B.C. Its size (112.6 x 56.3 m) makes it comparable to Temple G in Selinus and
the great Ionic temples of Asia Minor, e.g., the Artemision at Ephesos and the
Didymaion at Miletos. Although Doric in style, this temple is unique architecturally.
Over the foundations and the five-stepped crepidoma, in place of the traditional
colonnade there extended a solid wall, strengthened at regular intervals by Doric
half columns on the exterior and pilasters on the interior. Between the half columns,
at mid height up against the solid wall, stood colossal statues of Telamons, 7.65
m high, with arms bent at head level as if supporting an architrave. One of these
Telamons was reassembled during the past century and is now exhibited in the National
Museum; it was originally lying among the ruins of the temple where it has now
been replaced by a cast. The building was almost certainly hypaethral, but we
cannot restore its entablature. We only know that the facades were decorated with
sculptural representations of the Gigantomachy and the Fall of Troy.
At some distance from the E front of the temple lie the remains of
the great altar (54.5 x 17.5 m), which was originally a platform supported by
piers. Near the SE corner of the Temple of Zeus are the foundations of a small
temple with a double-naved cella; its chronology is controversial (between the
6th and 4th c. B.C.). Safely dated to the second half of the 4th c. B.C. is a
long portico set along the crest of the walls S of the Temple of Zeus; a trough
filled with votive terracottas was found at one end of it. Another portico, of
which only the foundations are preserved, separated the Temple of Zeus from the
adjacent Sanctuary of the Chthonian Divinities. Excavation in this area revealed
traces of prehistoric settlements going back to the Neolithic period. The sanctuary
and its various architectural structures are surrounded by a wall that is still
extant on the W side. The earliest monuments are on the S side of the sanctuary
and consist of 8 round and square altars; two enclosures, each containing several
rooms and two interior altars; three shrines with pronaos, cella, and adyton;
and various bothroi scattered among the structures. During the 6th c. B.C. work
started on two temples that were left unfinished and are now preserved only as
foundations; a third temple was completed during the first half of the 5th c.
B.C., and is now erroneously called the Temple of the Dioskouroi. Its foundations
are preserved and, at the NW corner, a group of four columns with entablature,
in a picturesque but incorrect reconstruction of the 19th c. which incorporated
architectural elements of various periods. A few yards to the S are the foundations,
column drums, and entablature blocks of a Hellenistic temple (now called "Temple
L") and its altar. Very recent excavations E of this temple have uncovered
a paved court and another shrine of rather complex plan, built in the 5th c. B.C.
over an earlier archaic shrine. Another sanctuary, perhaps also of the Chthonian
Divinities, has recently been identified at the W end of the hill, but the scarce
monumental remains that have come to light (shrine platforms, a round altar) do
not allow positive identification. A narrow valley lies under the N ridge of the
Sanctuary of the Chthonian Divinities; it is perhaps to be identified as the "Colimbetra",
the reservoir into which flowed the waters of the Akragan aqueducts planned by
Phaiax. Beyond this valley, on a small hill, stands the so-called Temple of Vulcan.
It was of the Doric order (43 x 20.8 m). At present only the foundations of peristyle
and cella, a few sections of the crepidoma, and the shafts of two columns remain.
The temple dates from the second half of the 5th c. B.C., but it contains in its
interior the foundations of an earlier temple in antis of the 6th c. B.C.; pieces
of its polychrome terracotta revetments are now on display in the National Museum.
The Temple of Asklepios is outside the city in the center of the
plain of St. Gregorius, almost at the confluence of the rivers Akragas and Hypsas.
It is almost certainly the temple mentioned by Polybios (1.18) in his description
of the Roman siege in 262 B.C. According to Cicero (Verr. 2.4.43) it contained
a statue of Apollo by Myron, stolen by Verres. This small temple of the second
half of the 5th c. B.C. is built on a high podium; it is Doric, in antis (21.7
x 10.7 m) with pronaos, cella, and a false opisthodomos formed by a solid wall
decorated with two Doric half-columns in between corner pilasters. The remains
of another temple, of the first half of the 5th c. B.C., lie in the center of
the modern city, on the colle di Girgenti, under the mediaeval church of S. Maria
dei Greci. The drums of six columns and 22.5 m of the krepidoma are preserved.
It has been suggested that this is the Temple of Athena built by Theron, but excavations
have provided no evidence to confirm this theory.
Two important archaeological complexes have been uncovered in the
last twenty years in the center of the valley of the temples. One is the archaeological
area between the church of S. Nicola and the new National Museum; the other is
the Hellenistic and Roman quarter nearby. The first archaeological area is called
S. Nicola after the beautiful mediaeval church next to it; here the famous Phaedra
sarcophagus is at present exhibited. This masterpiece is attributable to an Attic
workshop of the 2d-3d c. A.D. In the 6th and 5th c. B.C. the area next to the
church must have housed a Sanctuary of the Chthonian Divinities; its scanty remains
have been sacrificed to the construction of the new museum. Around the middle
of the 3d c. B.C. the rocky plateau was cut into a semicircular cavea with low
steps, which has been identified as the meeting place of the citizens' assembly,
either the ekklesiasterion or the comitium of the early Roman city. It is an important
monument because it represents the first public structure of a civic character
to be discovered in Agrigento. In the 1st c. B.C. the cavea was filled in and
replaced by a court, and at one end of it wasbuilt the famous prostyle temple
on a high podium known by the conventional name of Oratory of Phalaris. It was
once thought to be a monumental tomb, but the discovery of an altar with semicircular
exedra has confirmed that it was a shrine. In the Imperial period this area was
occupied by private houses of which a few rooms with mosaics are visible at the
foot of the cavea.
Not far from the S. Nicola area, on the opposite side of the national
road, recent excavations have uncovered a large section of the Roman living quarters,
built on an earlier Hellenistic site with a regular grid plan which, on stratigraphic
evidence, seems to go back to the 5th c. B.C. Aerial photography has revealed
that the entire slope of the valley was occupied by these habitation quarters
with regular plan. The road system of the area thus far excavated includes four
long parallel cardines, ca. 4 m wide and separated one from another by ca. 30
m. The cardines end at the present state road, which in this section must overlie
the ancient decumanus, as shown by sections of terracotta paving in opus spicatum
one of which is preserved in place. The houses, aligned in rows between the cardines,
are separated from each other by narrow ambitus and lie at different levels according
to their different chronology. Some houses belong to the Late Republican period
and have floors in opus signinum; most of them however belong to the Imperial
period, with polychrome mosaic floors. Some houses have an atrium of Italic type,
others the Hellenistic peristyle. They are all built with blocks of local limestone,
and no bricks were used. Large fragments of wall paintings with geometric motifs
are preserved. Among the most important are the Peristyle House, the House of
Aphrodite, and the House of the Gazelle, now displayed in the National Museum.
Among the houses there are also some tabernae and, on the surface, a few Early
Christian or Byzantine graves which infiltrated into the quarter after it was
abandoned in the 5th c. A.D.
Other notable monuments, though not easily accessible, are the so-called
hypogea, subterranean installations of the Greek aqueducts of the 5th c. B.C.
The best known are the Hypogeum Giacatello, to the N of the Museum, and the Hypogeum
del Paradiso in the center of the modern city. They are large rooms supported
by pilasters into which converge the galleries of the aqueducts. Outside Agrigento,
besides the so-called Tomb of Theron and the already-mentioned Temple of Asklepios,
are the remains of a small Early Christian apsidal basilica in the valley of the
river Akragas, along the road that climbs to the Temple of Juno. A large monumental
complex has also been discovered recently in the area of the modern quarter of
Villa Seta, between Agrigento and Porto Empedocle. It consists of the massive
ashlar foundations of a large quadrangular portico, probably with an Ionic colonnade
as suggested by an extant base. It may have been a large public building or an
extramural sanctuary of the Hellenistic-Roman period. All the archaeological material
once in the old Museo Comunale and the finds from recent excavations in Agrigento
and its territory are today gathered in the new National Museum near the church
of S. Nicola, which also houses the Superintendency to the Antiquities.
P. Orlandini, ed.
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Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Sep 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 261 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Agrigentum, Akragas: Eth. and Adj. Akragantinos, Agrigentinus: Girgenti.
One of the most powerful and celebrated of the Greek cities in Sicily, was situated
on the SW. coast of the island, about midway between Selinus and Gela. It stood
on a hill between two and three miles from the sea, the foot of which was washed
on the E. and S. by a river named the Acragas from whence the city itself derived
its appellation, on the W. and SW. by another stream named the Hypsas which unites
its waters with those of the Acragas just below the city, and about a mile from
its mouth. The former is now called the Fiume di S. Biagio, the latter the Drago,
while their united stream is commonly knomn as the Fiume di Girgenti (Polyb. ix.
27; Siefert, Akragas u. sein Gebiet, p. 20-22).
We learn from Thucydides that Agrigentum was founded by a colony from
Gela, 108 years after the establishment of the parent city, or B.C. 582. The leaders
of the colony were Aristonous and Pystilus, and it received the Dorian institutions
of the mother country, including the sacred rites and observances which had been
derived by Gela itself from Rhodes. On this account it is sometimes called a Rhodian
colony. (Thuc. vi. 4; Scymn. Ch. 292; Strab. vi. p. 272, where Kramerjustly reads
Geloion for Ionon; Polyb. ix. 27. Concerning the date of its foundation see Schol.
ad Pind. Ol. ii. 66; and Clinton, F. H. vol. ii. p. 265.) We have very little
information concerning its early history, but it appears to have very rapidly
risen to great prosperity and power: though it preserved its liberty for but a
very short period before it fell under the yoke of Phalaris (about 570 B.C.).
The history of that despot is involved in so much uncertainty that it is difficult
to know what part of it can be depended on as really historical. But it seems
certain that he raised Agrigentum to be one of the most powerful cities in Sicily,
and extended his dominion by force of arms over a considerable part of the island.
But the cruel and tyrannical character of his internal government at length provoked
a general insurrection, in which Phalaris himself perished, and the Agrigentines
recovered their liberty. (Diod. Exc. Vat. p. 25; Cic. de Off: ii. 7; Heraclides,
Polit. 37.) From this period till the accession of Theron, an interval of about
60 years, we have no information concerning Agrigentum, except a casual notice
that it was successively governed by Alcamenes and Alcandrus (but whether as despots
or chief magistrates does not appear), and that it rose to great wealth and prosperity
under their rule. (Heraclid.) The precise date when Theron attained to the sovereignty
of his native city, as well as the steps by which he rose to power, are unknown
to us: but he appears to have become despot of Agrigentum as early as B.C. 488.
(Diod. xi. 53.) By his alliance with Gelon of Syracuse, and still more by the
expulsion of Terillus from Himera, and the annexation of that city to his dominions,
Theron extended as well as confirmed his power, and the great Carthaginian invasion
in B.C. 480, which for a time threatened destruction to all the Greek cities in
Sicily, ultimately became a source of increased prosperity to Agrigentum. For
after the great victory of Gelon and Theron at Himera, a vast number of Carthaginian
prisoners fell into the hands of the Agrigentines, and were employed by them partly
in the cultivation of their extensive and fertile territory, partly in the construction
of public works in the city itself, the magnificence of which was long afterwards
a subject of admiration. (Diod. xi. 25.) Nor does the government of Theron appear
to have been oppressive, and he continued in the undisturbed possession of the
sovereign power till his death, B.C. 472. His son Thrasydaeus on the contrary
quickly alienated his subjects by his violent and arbitrary conduct, and was expelled
from Agrigentum within a year after his father's death.
The Agrigentines now established a democratic form of government,
which they retained without interruption for the space of above 60 years, until
the Carthaginian invasion in B.C. 406-a period which may be regarded as the most
prosperous and flourishing in the history of Agrigentum, as well as of many others
of the Sicilian cities. The great public works which were commenced or completed
during this interval were the wonder of succeeding ages; the city itself was adorned
with buildings both public and private, inferior to none in Greece, and the wealth
and magnificence of its inhabitants became almost proverbial. Their own citizen
Empedocles is said to have remarked that they built their houses as if they were
to live for ever, but gave themselves up to luxury as if they were to die on the
morrow. (Diog. Laert. viii. 2. § 63.) The number of citizens of Agrigentum
at this time is stated by Diodorus at 20,000: but he estimates the whole population
(including probably slaves as well as strangers) at not less than 200,000 (Diod.
xiii. 84 and 90), a statement by no means improbable, while that of Diogenes Laertius,
who makes the population of the city alone amount to 800,000, is certainly a gross
exaggeration.
This period was however by no means one of unbroken peace. Agrigentum
could not avoid participating-though in a less degree than many other cities-in
the troubles consequent on the expulsion of the Gelonian dynasty from Syracuse,
and the revolutions that followed in different parts of Sicily. Shortly afterwards
we find it engaged in hostilities with the Sicel chief Ducetius, and the conduct
of the Syracusans towards that chieftain led to a war between them and the Agrigentines,
which ended in a great defeat of the latter at the river Himera, B.C. 446. (Diod.
xi. 76, 91, xii. 8.) We find also obscure notices of internal dissensions, which
were allayed by the wisdom and moderation of Empedocles. (Diog. Laert. viii. 2.
§ 64-67.) On occasion of the great Athenian expedition to Sicily in B.C. 415,
Agrigentum maintained a strict neutrality, and not only declined sending auxiliaries
to either party but refused to allow a passage through their territory to those
of other cities. And even when the tide of fortune had turned decidedly against
the Athenians, all the efforts of the Syracusan partisans within the walls of
Agrigentum failed in inducing their fellow-citizens to declare for the victorious
party. (Thuc. vii. 32, 33, 46, 50, 58.)
A more formidable danger was at hand. The Carthaginians, whose intervention
was invoked by the Segestans, were contented in their first expedition (B.C. 409)
with the capture of Selinus and Himera: but when the second was sent in B.C. 406
it was Agrigentum that was destined to bear the first brunt of the attack. The
luxurious habits of the Agrigentines had probably rendered them little fit for
warfare, but they were supported by a body of mercenaries under the command of
a Lacedaemonian named Dexippus, who occupied the citadel, and the natural strength
of the city in great measure defied the efforts of the assailants. But notwithstanding
these advantages and the efficient aid rendered them by a Syracusan army under
Daphnaeus, they were reduced to such distress by famine that after a siege of
eight months they found it impossible to hold out longer, and to avoid surrendering
to the enemy, abandoned their city, and migrated to Gela. The sick and helpless
inhabitants were massacred, and the city itself with all its wealth and magnificence
plundered by the Carthaginians, who occupied it as their quarters during the winter,
but completed its destruction when they quitted it in the spring, B.C. 405. (Diod.
xiii. 80-91, 108; Xen. Hell. i. 5. 21)
Agrigentum never recovered from this fatal blow, though by the terms
of the peace concluded with Dionysius by the Carthaginians, the fugitive inhabitants
were permitted to return, and to occupy the ruined city, subject however to the
Carthaginian rule, and on condition of not restoring the fortifications, a permission
of which many appear to have availed themselves. (Diod. xiii. 114.) A few years
later they were even able to shake off the yoke of Carthage and attach themselves
to the cause of Dionysius, and the peace of B.C. 383, which fixed the river Halycus
as the boundary of the Carthaginian dominions, must have left them in the enjoyment
of their liberty; but though we find them repeatedly mentioned during the wars
of Dionysius and his successors, it is evident that the city was far from having
recovered its previous importance, and continued to play but a subordinate part.
(Diod. xiv. 46, 88, xv. 17, xvi. 9; Plut. Dion, 25, 26, 49.) In the general settlement
of the affairs of Sicily by Timoleon, after his great victory over the Carthaginians
on the Crimissus, B.C. 340, he found Agrigentum in a state of such depression
that he resolved to recolonise it with citizens from Velia in Italy (Plut. Timol.
35.): a measure which, combined with other benefits, proved of such advantage
to the city, that Timoleon was looked upon as their second founder: and during
the interval of peace which followed, Agrigentum again attained to such great
prosperity as to become once more the rival of Syracuse.
Shortly after the accession of Agathocles, the Agrigentines, becoming apprehensive
that he was aspiring to the dominion of the whole island, entered into a league
with the Geloans and Messenians to oppose his power, and obtained from Sparta
the assistance of Acrotatus the son of Cleomenes as their general: but the character
of that prince frustrated all their plans, and after his expulsion they were compelled
to purchase peace from Syracuse by the acknowledgement of the Hegemony or supremacy
of that city, B.C. 314. (Diod. xix. 70,71.) Some years afterwards, in B.C. 309,
the absence of Agathocles in Africa, and the reverses sustained by his partisans
in Sicily, appeared again to offer a favourable opening to the ambition of the
Agrigentines, who chose Xenodocus for. their general, and openly aspired to the
Hegemony of Sicily, proclaiming at the same time the independence of the several
cities. They were at first very successful: the powerful cities of Gela and Enna
joined their cause, Herbessus and Echetla were taken by force; but when Xenodocus
ventured on a pitched battle with Leptines and Demophilus, the generals of Agathocles,
he sustained a severe defeat, and was compelled to shut himself up within the
walls of Agrigentum. Agathocles himself shortly afterwards returned from Africa,
and quickly recovered almost all that he had lost: his general Leptines invaded
the territory of Agrigentum, totally defeated Xenodocus, and compelled the Agrigentines
once more to sue for peace. (Diod. xx. 31, 32, 56, 62.)
After the death of Agathocles, Agrigentum fell under the yoke of Phintias,
who became despot of the city, and assumed the title of king. We have very little
information concerning the period of his rule, but he appears to have attained
to great power, as we find Agyrium and other cities of the interior subject to
his dominion, as well as Gela, which he destroyed, in order to found a new city
named after himself. The period of his expulsion is unknown, but at the time when
Pyrrhus landed in Sicily we find Agrigentum occupied by Sosistratus with a strong
force of mercenary troops, who however hastened to make his submission to the
king of Epeirus. (Diod. xxii. Exc. Hoesch. p. 495-497.)
On the commencement of the First Punic War, Agrigentum espoused the
cause of the Carthaginians, and even permitted their general Hannibal to fortify
their citadel, and occupy the city with a Carthaginian garrison. Hence after the
Romans had secured the alliance of Hieron of Syracuse, their principal efforts
were directed to the reduction of Agrigentum, and in B.C. 262 the two consuls
L. Postumius and Q. Mamilius laid siege to it with their whole force. The siege
lasted nearly as long as that by the Carthaginians in B.C. 406, and the Romans
suffered severely from disease and want of provisions, but the privations of the
besieged were still greater, and the Carthaginian general Hanno, who had advanced
with a large army to relieve the city, having been totally defeated by the Roman
consuls, Hannibal who commanded the army within the walls found it impossible
to hold out any longer, and made his escape in the night with the Carthaginian
and mercenary troops, leaving the city to its fate. It was immediately occupied
by the Romans who carried off 25,000 of the inhabitants into slavery. The siege
had lasted above seven months, and is said to have cost the victorious army more
than 30,000 men. (Diod. xxiii. Exc. Hoesch. p. 501-503; Polyb. i. 17-19; Zonar.
viii. 10.) At a later period of the war (B.C. 255) successive losses at sea having
greatly weakened the Roman power in Sicily, the Carthaginian general Carthalo
recovered possession of Agrigentum with comparatively little difficulty, when
he once more laid the city in ashes and razed its walls, the surviving inhabitants
having taken refuge in the temple of the Olympian Zeus. (Diod. l. c. p. 505.)
From this time we hear no more of Agrigentum till the end of the First
Punic War, when it passed under the dominion of Rome: but it must have in some
degree recovered from its late calamities, as it plays no unimportant part when
the contest between Rome and Carthage was renewed in the Second Punic War. On
this occasion it continued steadfast in its adherence to the Romans, but was surprised
and taken by Himilco, before Marcellus could arrive to its support (Liv. xxiv.
35.): and from henceforth became the chief stronghold of the Carthaginians in
Sicily, and held out against the Roman consul Laevinus long after the other cities
in the island had submitted. At length the Numidian Mutines, to whose courage
and skill the Carthaginians owed their protracted defence, having been offended
by their general Hanno, betrayed the city into the hands of Laevinus, B.C. 210.
The leading citizens were put to death, and the rest sold as slaves. (Liv. xxv.
40, 41, xxvi. 40.)
Agrigentum now became, in common with the rest of the Sicilian cities,
permanently subject to Rome: but it was treated with much favour and enjoyed many
privileges. Three years after its capture a number of new citizens from other
parts of Sicily were established there by the praetor Mamilius, and two years
after this the municipal rights and privileges of the citizens were determined
by Scipio Africanus in a manner so satisfactory that they continued unaltered
till the time of Verres. Cicero repeatedly mentions Agrigentum as one of the most
wealthy and populous cities of Sicily, the fertility of its territory and the
convenience of its port rendering it one of the chief emporiums for the trade
in corn. (Cic. Verr. ii. 5. 0, 62, iii. 43, iv. 33, 43.) It is certain, however,
that it did not in his day rank as a Roman colony, and it is very doubtful whether
it ever attained this distinction, though we find that it was allowed to strike
coins, with the Latin inscription AGKIGENTUM, as late as the time of Augustus.
(Eckhel, D. N. vol. i. p. 193.)2 If it really obtained the title and privileges
of a colony under that emperor, it must have soon lost them, as neither Pliny
nor Ptolemy reckon it among the Roman colonies in Sicily. From the time of Augustus
we find no historical mention of it under the Roman empire, but its continued
existence is attested by the geographers and Itineraries, and as long as Sicily
remained subject to the Greek empire, Agrigentum is still mentioned as one of
its most considerable cities. (Strab. vi. p. 272; Plin. H. N. iii. 8. § 14; Ptol.
iii. 4. § 14; Itin. Ant. p. 88; Tab. Peut.; Const. Porph. de Prov. ii. 10.) It
was one of the first places that fell into the hands of the Saracens on their
invasion of Sicily in 827, and was wrested from them by the Normans under Roger
Guiscard in 1086. The modern city of Girgenti still contains about 13,000 inhabitants,
and, is the see of a bishop, and capital of one of the seven districts or Intendenze
into which Sicily is now divided.
The situation of Agrigentum is well described by Polybius (ix. 27).
It occupied a hill of considerable extent, rising between two small rivers, the
Acragas and Hypsas, of which the southern front, though of small elevation, presented
a steep escarpment, running nearly in a straight line from E. to W. From hence
the ground sloped gradually upwards, though traversed by a cross valley or depression,
towards a much more elevated ridge which formed the northern portion of the city,
and was divided into two summits, the north-western, on which stands the modern
city of Girgenti, and the north-eastern, which derived from a temple of Athena,
that crowned its height, the name of the Athenaean hill (d Athenaios lophos, Diod.
xiii. 85). This summit, which attains to the height of 1200 feet above the sea,
and is the most elevated of the whole city, is completely precipitous and inaccessible
towards the N. and E., and could be approached only by one steep and narrow path
from the city itself. Hence, it formed the natural citadel or acropolis of Agrigentum,
while the gentle slopes and broad valley which separate it from the southern ridge,-now
covered with gardens and fruit-trees,-afforded, ample space for the extension
and development of the city itself: Great as was the natural strength of its position,
the whole city was surrounded with walls, of which considerable portions still
remain, especially along the southern front: their whole circuit was about 6 miles.
The peculiarities of its situation sufficiently explain the circumstances of the
two great sieges of Agrigentum, in both of which it will be observed that the
assailants confined all their attacks to the southern and south-western parts
of the city, wholly neglecting the north and east. Diodorus, indeed, expressly
tells us that there was only one quarter (that adjoining the river Hypsas) where
the walls could be approached by military engines, and assaulted with any prospect
of success. (Diod. xiii. 85.)
Agrigentum was not less celebrated in ancient times for the beauty
of its architecture, and the splendour and variety of its buildings, both public
and private, than for its strength as a fortress. Pindar calls it the fairest
of mortal cities (kallista brotean poleon, Pyth. xii. 2), though many of its most
striking ornaments were probably not erected till after his time. The magnificence
of the private dwellings of the Agrigentines is sufficiently attested by the saying
of Empedocles already cited: their public edifices are the theme of admiration
with many ancient writers. Of its temples, probably the most ancient were that
of Zeus Atabyrios, whose worship they derived from Rhodes, and that of Athena,
both of which stood on the highest summit of the Athenaean hill above the city.
(Polyb. l. c.) The temple of Zeus Polieus, the construction of which is ascribed
to Phalaris (Polyaen. v. l. § 1), is supposed to have stood on the hill occupied
by the modern city of Girgenti, which appears to have formed a second citadel
or acropolis, in some measure detached from the more lofty summit to the east
of it. Some fragments of ancient walls, still existing in those of the church
of Sta Maria de' Greci, are considered to have belonged to this temple. But far
more celebrated than these was the great temple of the Olympian Zeus, which was
commenced by the Agrigentines at the period of their greatest power and prosperity,
but was not quite finished at the time of the Carthaginian invasion in B.C. 406,
and in consequence of that calamity was never completed. It is described in considerable
detail by Diodorus, who tells us that it was 340 feet long, 160 broad, and 120
in height, without reckoning the basement. The columns were not detached, but
engaged in the wall, from which only half of their circumference projected: so
gigantic were their dimensions, that each of the flutings would admit a man's
body. (Diod. xiii. 82; Polyb. ix. 27.) Of this vast edifice nothing remains but
the basement, and a few fragments of the columns and entablature, but even these
suffice to confirm the accuracy of the statements of Diodorus, and to prove that
the temple must not only have greatly exceeded all others in Sicily, but was probably
surpassed in magnitude by no Grecian building of the kind, except that of Diana
at Ephesus. A considerable portion of it (including several columns, and three
gigantic figures, which served as Atlantes to support an entablature), appears
to have remained standing till the year 1401, when it fell down: and the vast
masses of fallen fragments were subsequently employed in the construction of the
mole, which protects the present port of Girgenti. (Fazell. vol. i. p. 248; Smyth's
Sicily, p. 203.)
Besides these, we find mention in ancient writers of a temple of Hercules,
near the Agora, containing a statue of that deity of singular beauty and excellence
(Cic. Verr. iv. 4. 3), and one of Aesculapius without the walls, on the south
side of the city (Cic. l. c.; Polyb. i. 1 8), the remains of which are still visible,
not far from the bank of the river Acragas. It contained a celebrated statue of
Apollo, in bronze, the work of Myron, which Verres in vain endeavoured to carry
off. Of the other temples, the ruins of which are extant on the site of Agrigentum,
and are celebrated by all travellers in Sicily, the ancient appellations cannot
be determined with any certainty. The most conspicuous are two which stand on
the southern ridge facing the sea: one of these at the S. E. angle of the city,
is commonly known as the temple of Juno Lacinia, a name which rests only on a
misconception of a passage of Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 9. § 36): it is in a half ruined
state, but its basement is complete, and many of its columns still standing. Its
position on the projecting angle of the ridge, with a precipitous bank below it
on two sides, gives it a singularly picturesque and striking character. A few
hundred paces to the W. of this stands another temple, in far better preservation,
being indeed the most perfect which remains in Sicily; it is commonly called the
temple of Concord, from an inscription said to have been discovered there, but
which (if authentic) is of Roman date, while both this temple and that just described
must certainly be referred to the most flourishing period of Agrigentine history,
or the fifth century B.C. They are both of the Doric order, and of much the same
dimensions: both are peripfteral, or surrounded with a portico, consisting of
6 columns in front, and 13 on each side. The existing vestiges of other temples
are much less considerable: one to the W. of that of Concord, of which only one
column is standing, is commonly regarded as that of Hercules, mentioned by Cicero.
Its plan and design have been completely ascertained by recent excavations, which
have proved that it was much the largest of those remaining at Agrigentum, after
that of the Olympian Zeus: it had 15 columns in the side and 6 in front. Another,
a little to the north of it, of which considerable portions have been preserved,
and brought to light by excavation on the spot, bears the name, though certainly
without authority, of Castor and Pollux: while another, on the opposite side of
a deep hollow or ravine, of which two columns remain, is styled that of Vulcan.
A small temple or aedicula, near the convent of S. Nicolo, is commonly known by
the designation of the Oratory of Phalaris : it is of insignificant size, and
certainly of Roman date. The church of St. Blasi, or S.Biagio, near the eastern
extremity of the Athenaean hill, is formed out of the cella of an ancient temple,
which is supposed, but without any authority, to have been dedicated to Ceres
and Proserpine. (For full details concerning these temples, and the other ruins
still visible at Girgenti, see Swinburne's Travels, vol. ii. p. 280--291; Smyth's
Sicily, p. 207-212; D'Orville's Sicula, p. 89-103; Siefert, Akragas, p. 24-38;
and especially Serra di Falco, Antichita della Sicilia, vol. iii., who gives the
results of recent labours on the spot, many of which were unknown to former writers.)
Next to the temple of the Olympian Zeus, the public work of which
Diodorus speaks with the greatest admiration (xi. 25, xiii. 72), was a piscina,
or reservoir of water, constructed in the time of Theron, which was not less than
seven stadia in circumference, and was plentifully stocked with fish, and frequented
by numerous swans. It had fallen into decay, and become filled with mud in the
time of the historian, but its site is supposed to be still indicated by a deep
hollow or depression in the S. western portion of the city, between the temple
of Vulcan and that of Castor and Pollux, now converted into a garden. Connected
with this was an extensive system of subterranean sewers and conduits for water,
constructed on a scale far superior to those of any other Greek city: these were
called Phaeaces, from the name of their architect Phaeax.
It was not only in their public buildings that the Agrigentines, during
the flourishing period of their city, loved to display their wealth and luxury.
An ostentatious magnificence appears to have characterised their habits of life,
in other respects also: and showed itself especially in their love of horses and
chariots. Their territory was celebrated for the excellence of its breed of horses
(Virg. Aen. iii. 704), an advantage which enabled them repeatedly to bear away
the prize in the chariot-race at the Olympic games: and it is recorded that after
one of these occasions the victor Exaenetus was accompanied on his triumphant
entry into his native city by no less than three hundred chariots, all drawn by
white horses. (Diod. xiii. 82.) Not less conspicuous and splendid were the hospitalities
of the more wealthy citizens. Those of Theron are celebrated by Pindar (01. iii.
70), but even these probably fell short of those of later days. Gellias, a citizen
noted even at Agrigentum for his wealth and splendour of living, is said to have
lodged and feasted at once five hundred knights from Gela, and Antisthenes, on
occasion of his daughter's marriage, furnished a banquet to all the citizens of
Agrigentum in the several quarters they inhabited. (Diod. xiii. 83, 84.) These
luxurious habits were not unaccompanied with a refined taste for the cultivation
of the fine arts: their temples and public buildings were adorned with the choicest
works of sculpture and painting, many of which were carried off by Himilco to
Carthage, and some of them after the fall of that city restored to Agrigentum
by Scipio Africanus. (Diod. xiii. 90; Cic. Verr. iv. 4. 3; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 9.
s. 36.) A like spirit of ostentation was displayed in the magnitude and splendour
of their sepulchral monuments; and they are said to have even erected costly,
tombs to favourite horses and to pet birds. (Diod. xiii. 82; Plin. H. N. 42. 64;
Solin. 45. § 11.) The plain in front of the city, occupying the space from the
southern wall to the confluence of the two rivers, was full of these sepulchres
and monuments, among which that of Theron was conspicuous for its magnitude (Diod.
xiii. 86): the name is now commonly given to the only structure of the kind which
remains, though it is of inconsiderable dimensions, and belongs, in all probability,
to the Roman period.
For this extraordinary wealth Agrigentum was indebted, in a great
measure, to the fertility of its territory, which abounded not only in corn, as
it continued to do in the time of Cicero, and still does at the present day, but
was especially fruitful in vines and olives, with the produce of which it supplied
Carthage, and the whole of the adjoining parts of Africa, where their cultivation
was as yet unknown. (Diod. xi. 25, xiii. 81.) The vast multitude of slaves which
fell to the lot of the Agrigentines, after the great victory of Himera, contributed
greatly to their prosperity, by enabling them to bring into careful cultivation
the whole of their extensive and fertile domain. The allies on the banks of its
river furnished excellent pasture for sheep (Pind. Pyth. xii. 4), and in later
times, when the neighboring country had ceased to be so richly cultivated, it
was noted for the excellence of its cheeses. (Plin. H. N. xi. 42. 97.)
It is difficult to determine with precision the extent and boundaries
of the territory of Agrigentum, which must indeed have varied greatly at different
times : but it would seem to have extended as far as the river Himera on the E.,
and to have been bounded by the Halycus on the W.; though at one time it must
have comprised a considerable extent of country beyond that river; and on the
other hand Heraclea Minoa, on the eastern bank of the Halycus, was for a long
time independent of Agrigentum. Towards the interior it probably extended as far
as the mountain range in which those two rivers have their sources, the Nebrodes
Mons, or Monte Madonia, which separated it from the territory of Himera. (Siefert,
Akragas, p. 9-11.) Among the smaller towns and places subject to its dominion
are mentioned Motyum and Erbessus in the interior of the country, Camicus the
ancient fortress of Cocalus (erroneously supposed by many writers to have occupied
the site of the modern town of Girgenti), Ecnomus on the borders of the territory
of Gela, and subsequently Phintias founded by the despot of that name, on the
site of the modern Alicata.
Of the two rivers which flowed beneath the walls of Agrigentum, the
most considerable was the Acragas from whence according to the common consent
of most ancient authors the city derived its name. Hence it was worshipped as
one of the tutelary deities of the city, and statues erected to it by the Agrigentines,
both in Sicily and at Delphi, in which it was represented under the figure of
a young man, probably with horns on his forehead, as we find it on the coins of
Agrigentum. (Pind. Ol. ii. 16, Pyth. xii. 5, and Schol. ad locc.; Empedocles ap.
Diog. Laert. viii. 2. § 63; Steph. Byz. v. Akragas; Aelian. V. H. ii. 33; Castell.
Numm. Sic. Vet. p. 8.) At its mouth was situated the Port or Emporium of Agrigentum,
mentioned by Strabo and Ptolemy; but notwithstanding the extensive commerce of
which this was at one time the centre, it had little natural advantages, and must
have been mainly formed by artificial constructions. Considerable remains of these,
half buried in sand, were still visible in the time of Fazello, but have since
in great measure disappeared. The modern port of Girgenti is situated above three
miles further west. (Strab. vi. pp. 266, 272; Ptol. iii. 4. § 6; Fazell. vi. 1.
p. 246; Smyth's Sicily, pp. 202,203.)
Among the natural productions of the neighbourhood of Agrigentum,
we find no mention in ancient authors of the mines of sulphur, which are at the
present day one of the chief sources of prosperity to Girgenti; but its mines
of salt (still worked at a place called Aborangi, about 8 miles north of the city),
are alluded to both by Pliny and Solinus. (Plin. H. N. xxxi. 7. s. 41; Solin.
5. § § 18, 19.) Several writers also notice a fountain in the immediate neighbourhood
of the city, which produced Petroleum or mineral oil, considered to be of great
efficacy as a medicament for cattle and sheep. The source still exists in a garden
not far from Girgenti, and is frequently resorted to by the peasants for the same
purpose. (Dioscorid. i. 100; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 15. s. 51; Solin. 5. § 22 ; Fazell.
de Reb. Sicul. vi. p. 261; Ferrara, Campi Flegrei della Sicilia, p. 43.) A more
remarkable object is the mud volcano (now called by the Arabic name of Maccalubba)
about 4 miles N. of Girgenti, the phenomena of which are described by Solinus,
but unnoticed by any previous writer. (Solin. 5. § 24; Fazell. p. 262 ; Ferrara,
l. c. p. 44; Smyth's Sicily, p. 213.)
Among the numerous distinguished citizens to whom Agrigentum gave
birth, the most conspicuous is the philosopher Empedocles : among his contemporaries
we may mention the rhetorician Polus, and the physician Acron. Of earlier date
than these was the comic poet Deinolochus, the pupil, but at the same time the
rival, of Epicharmus. Philinus, the historian of the First Punic War, is the latest
writer of eminence, who was a native of Agrigentum.
The extant architectural remains of Agrigentum have been already noticed
in speaking of its ancient edifices. Besides these, numerous fragments of buildings,
some of Greek and others of Roman date, are scattered over the site of the ancient
city: and great numbers of sepulchres have been excavated, some in the plain below
the city, others within its walls. The painted vases found in these tombs greatly
exceed in number and variety those discovered in any other Sicilian city, and
rival those of Campania and Apulia.
But with this exception comparatively few works of art have been discovered.
A sarcophagus of marble, now preserved in the cathedral of Girgenti, on which
is represented the story of Phaedra and Hippolytus, has been greatly extolled
by many travellers, but its merits are certainly over-rated.
There exist under the hill occupied by the modern city extensive catacombs
or excavations in the rock, which have been referred by many writers to the ancient
Sicanians, or ascribed to Daedalus. It is probable that, like the very similar
excavations at Syracuse, they were, in fact, constructed merely in the process
of quarrying stone for building purposes.
The coins of Agrigentum, which are very numerous and of beautiful
workmanship, present as their common type an eagle on the one side and a crab
on the other. The one here figured, on which the eagle is represented as tearing
a hare, belongs undoubtedly to the most flourishing period of Agrigentine history,
that immediately preceding the siege and capture of the city by the Carthaginians,
B.C. 406. Other coins of the same period have a quadriga on the reverse, in commemoration
of their victories at the Olympic games.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Diocese of Girgenti (Agrigentina).
Girgenti is the capital of a province in Sicily and is situated about
three miles from the sea, on a steep rock overlooking a rich plain watered by
the Drago. Besides a trade in vegetables, fruits, and cereals, it is a mining
centre for sulphur, soda, chalk, copper, and iron. Its marble quarries are also
rich. The Greeks called it Acragas; the Romans Agrigentum. It was founded by a
Greek colony from Gela about 582 B. C. The upper portion of the town was already
in existence. It was called Camicum from its position on a platform of Mt. Camicus,
and was surrounded by cyclopean walls. The Greeks settled at the foot of this
acropolis, which they made the acropolis of their city; soon the town was doing
a rich trade with the Carthaginians, and was reckoned, after Syracuse, the first
town in Sicily. Like other Doric towns, it became a republic, but was often under
the control of tyrants, e. g. Phalaris the Cruel (570-555), Theron (488-472),
who with Gelon of Syracuse defeated the Carthaginians under Hamilcar near Himera
(480 B. C.). The war of Thrasydeus, son and successor of Theron, on Hieron of
Syracuse, brought Agrigentum under the tyrants of Syracuse (471 B. C.), but it
soon regained its freedom. In 406 the Carthaginians under Hannibal and later under
Himilco besieged the city, captured it, slew the inhabitants, and despoiled the
temples of their artistic treasures, which were carried off to Carthage. Once
more it regained autonomy, only to fall under the tyranny of Phintias (288 B.
C.). After this it became the centre of Carthaginian resistance to Rome. In 262
the Romans captured it for the first time, and in 210 they gained complete control.
The wealth and splendour of the ancient city are attested by all writers, and
by ruins that remain till this day. The principal antiquities are: the temple
of Jupiter on the acropolis, of which seven columns of the peristyle remain; that
of Minerva, to which many of the townsfolk fled in 406 B. C., seeking death under
its ruins rather than fall into the hands of the Carthaginians; in the district
known as Neapolis the temple of Hercules mentioned by Cicero in his "Oratio in
Verrem"; the Temple of Concord, in old Ionic style, the best preserved of them
all, because used as a church in later times; over one of the cornices was carved
a treaty of alliance between Agrigentum and Lilyb?um. There are, moreover: the
temple of Juno Lacinia; the temple of ?sculapius, which contained a bronze statue
of the god (this work of Myron was carried away to Carthage but restored by Scipio
Africanus); the temple of Olympian Jove, according to Polybius the largest and
most beautiful in Sicily. In 1401 three colossal caryatides supporting an architrave
were discovered; the fact was commemorated in the coat of arms of Girgenti. Other
edifices of the city were: the temple of Castor and Pollux, of which there remains
an architrave supported on four pillars; the temple of Vulcan; that of Ceres and
Proserpine; and the remains of a stadium. In 827 the Arabs, called in by the Byzantine
tribune Euphemios, captured the city, and spread over the whole island. In the
eleventh century Girgenti was the centre of Saracen resistance to the Normans,
who finally captured it in 1087; thenceforth it shared the fortune of the Kingdom
of the Two Sicilies.
In the roll of its illustrious citizens are found the names of the
philosophers Empedocles and Acron; the historian Philinos; the musician Metellos,
Plato's master; the dramatists Archion and Carenos; the orator Sophocles; the
humanist Nicolo la Valle; and the dramatist Francesco del Carretto. Among the
natural curiosities of note in the neighbourhood is the hill of Maccalubba, studded
with small craters, about thirty inches deep, spouting cold water, carbonic acid,
and hydrogen mixed with asphaltum, chalk, sulphate of lime, etc. The cathedral
is built of ancient materials, and has a beautiful Madonna by Guido Reni, and
paintings by Nunzio Magro. The church of S. Nicolo exhibits a very fine Norman
doorway. Girgenti venerates St. Libertinus as its earliest apostle; he is said
to have been sent thither by St. Peter. The earliest bishop of whose date we are
certain is St. Potamius, a contemporary of Pope Agapetus I (535-36). St. Gregory
I, Bishop of Agrigentum, said to have been martyred in 262, is probably only a
double of the homonymous bishop who was a contemporary of St. Gregory the Great.
The list of bishops, interrupted by the Saracen invasion, began again in 1093
with St. Gerlando. Other bishops of note are: Rinaldo di Acquaviva (1244), who
restored the cathedral and crowned King Manfred, for which latter action he was
excommunicated by Alexander IV; and Fra Matteo Gimmara, called the Blessed. Girgenti
is a suffragan of Monreale, has 66 parishes and 381,000 souls, 10 religious houses
for men, and 42 for women. It is also a centre for the Azione Cattolica Sociale
in Sicily.
U. Benigni, ed.
Transcribed by: Richard Hemphill
This text is cited June 2004 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
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