Page:History of Greece Vol X.djvu/447

 THE CARTHAGINIANS ATTACK AGRIGENTUM. 425 of Agrigentum was situated in the southern half of the walled en- closure. The citadel, separated from it by a ravine, and accessible on! j by one narrow ascent, stood on the north-eastern hill ; it was the most conspicuous feature in the place, called the Athenaeum^ and decorated by temples of Athene and of Zeus Atabyrius. In the plain under the southern wall of the city stood the Agri- gentine sepulchres. 1 Reinforced by eight hundred Campanian mercenaries, with the fifteen hundred other mercenaries brought by Dexippus from Gela, the Agrigentines awaited confi- dently the attack upon their walls, which were not only in far better condition than those of Selinus, but also unapproach- able by battering-machines or movable towers, except on one part of the south-western side. It was here that Hannibal, af- ter reconnoitering the town all round, began his attack. But after hard fighting without success for one day, he was forced to retire at nightfall ; and even lost his battering train, Avhich was burnt during the night by a sally of the besieged. 2 Desisting from farther attempts on that point, Hannibal now ordered his troops to pull down the tombs ; which were numerous on the lower or southern side of the city, and many of which, especially that of the despot Theron, were of conspicuous grandeur. By this mea sure he calculated on providing materials adequate to the erection of immense mounds, equal in height to the southern wall, and sufficiently close to it for the purpose of assault. His numerous host had made considerable progress in demolishing these tombs, and were engaged in breaking down the monument of Theron, 1 See about the Topography of Agrigentum, Seyfert, Akragas, p. 21, 23, 40 (Hamburg, 1845). The modern town of Girgenti stands on one of the hills of this vast aggregate, which is overspread with masses of ruins, and around which the traces of the old walls may be distinctly made out, with considerable re- mains of them in some particular parts. Compare Polybius, i, 18; ix, 27. Pindar calls the town iraTa/tip r' 'A/cpayavn Pyth. vi, 6: iepbv O'IKI][U: it yraftov Olymp. ii, 10. 3 Diodor. xiii, 85. We read of a stratagem in Polyoenus (v, 10, 4), whereby Imilkon is said to have enticed the Agrigentines, in one of their sallies, into incautious pursuit, by a simulated flight and thus to have inflicted upon them a seri- ous defeat.