Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/93

 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. (Stub. vi pi 272; Plin. H. N. iii. 8. § 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 14; Itin. Ant. p. 88; Tab. Peut.; Const. Porph. de Proe. u. 10.) It was one of the first places that fe11 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 Hypass, 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 (, Doid. xiii. 85). This summit, which attains to the height of 1200 feet above the sea, and in 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, is 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 adjoined the river Hypsas) where the walls could be approached by military engines, and assaulted with any prospect of success. (Diod. xiii. 85.)

Arigentum was not less celebrated in ancient times for the beauty of its architecture, and the splendor and variety of its buildings, both public and private, than for its strength as a fortress. Pindar calls it "the fairest of mortal cities" (, 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, where worship they derived from Rhodes, and that of Athena, both of which stood on the highestsummit 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. 1. § 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. 43), and one of Aesculapius without the walls, on the south side of the city (Cic. l. c.; Polyb. i. 18), 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. § 90: 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 tins 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