Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/445

 AGRIGENTUM. 423 efforts were now devoted to the prosecution of the war against Athens ; this being the year wher&n Kallikratidas commanded, and when the battle of ArginusaB was fought. Of all Sicilian Greeks, the Agrigentines were both the most fright ened and the most busily employed. Conterminous as they were with Selinus on their western frontier, and foreseeing that the first shock of the invasion would fall upon them, they immediately be- gan to carry in their outlying property within the walls, as well as to accumulate a stock of provisions for enduring blockade. Send- ing for Dexippus, a Lacedemonian then in Gela as commander of a body of mercenaries for the defence of that town, they en- gaged him in their service, with one thousand five hundred hop- lites ; reinforced by eight hundred of those Campanians who had served with Hannibal at Himera, but had quitted him in disgust. 1 Agrigentum was at this time in the highest state of prosperity and magnificence ; a tempting prize for any invader. Its popu- lation was very great ; comprising, according to one account, twenty thousand citizens among an aggregate total of two hundred thousand males, citizens, metics, and slaves ; according to an- other account, an aggregate total of no less than eight hundred thousand persons ; 2 numbers unauthenticated. and not to be trusted farther than as indicating a very populous city. Situated a little more than two miles from the sea, and possessing a spacious ter- ritory highly cultivated, especially with vines and olives, Agrigen- tum carried on a lucrative trade with the opposite coast of Africa, where at that time no such plantations flourished. Its temples and porticos, especially the spacious temple of Zeus Olympius, its statues and pictures, its abundance of chariots and horses, its fortifications, its sewers, its artificial lake of near a mile in circumference, abundantly stocked with fish, all these placed it on a par with the most splendid cities of the Hellenic world. 3 Of the numerous prisoners taken at the defeat of the Carthagin- ians near Himera seventy years before, a very large proportion had fallen to the lot of the Agrigentines, and had been employed by them in public works contributing to the advantage or orna ment of the city. 4 The hospitality of the wealthy citizens, Gellias, 1 Diodor. xiii, 81-84. 2 Diogen. Laert. viii, 6,'). Dio]or. xiii, 81-84 Polyb. ix, 7. * Diodor. xi. 25.