Ambition and thirst of plunder having led the Carthaginians into
Sicily, their general opened the campaign by laying siege to
Agrigentum, an opulent and well-fortified city. In order to construct
terraces and causeways, the besiegers destroyed the tombs which
environed the city, which sacrilege cost both parties very dear, for
the effluvia which escaped the violated graves bred a most destructive
pestilence. Thousands of soldiers were carried off daily, and among
them Hannibal, the general of the Carthaginians, fell an early victim
to the disease. We think we scarcely need remind our young readers
that this was not the great Hannibal: they all know how he died. The
multitude beheld, in this affliction, a punishment from the gods
for the profanation of the ashes of the dead. To render them again
propitious, prayers and offerings were made, and even a young child
was sacrificed to Saturn. Notwithstanding these pious vows, famine,
a no less redoubtable scourge, was added to the calamities of the
besieged, who, without hope and without resources, began to speak of
surrendering. The Carthaginians refused to make any terms with them.
Only one resource was left to the unfortunate Agrigentines; that of
abandoning their city and taking refuge in the neighbouring states.
They must either leave their aged and sick to the mercy of a barbarous
enemy, or remain and perish all together. Necessity prevailed over
humanity; never was exhibited a stronger scene of desolation than of
the Agrigentines, so recently happy and wealthy, departing for ever
from their homes, abandoning their sick or aged relations, their
property, and all they held dear. In their misfortunes they received
a friendly welcome from their neighbours, the inhabitants of Gela,
whilst the cruel Carthaginians pillaged the city, and massacred every
inhabitant who had been left behind.
Agrigentum was one of those cities from which enormous wealth and the
easy indulgence in every luxury had banished temperance and morality.
The inhabitants were more addicted to drunkenness than any people
of Greece. There is a story told of a company of young men who were
intoxicated to such a degree as to be convinced by one of their party
they were in a ship in distress, and, in compliance with his advice,
threw all the splendid furniture of the room out of the windows, to
save the vessel from sinking. Almost the only virtue this people had
was hospitality.
We cannot dismiss the subject of Agrigentum without reverting to the
tyrant Phalaris and his brazen bull. Perillo, a goldsmith, by way
of paying his court to Phalaris, a tyrant of Agrigentum, made him a
present of a brazen bull of excellent workmanship, hollow within, and
so constructed, that the voice of a person shut up in it, sounded
exactly like the bellowing of a bull. The artist pointed out to the
tyrant what an admirable effect this must produce, were he to shut up a
few criminals in it, and make a fire underneath. Phalaris, struck with
the horror of this idea, and perhaps curious to try the experiment,
told the goldsmith that he himself was the only person worthy of
animating his bull, as he must have studied the notes that made it
roar to the greatest advantage, and that it would be unjust to deprive
him of any part of the honour of the invention. Upon which, he ordered
the goldsmith to be shut up, and a great fire to be kindled round the
bull, which immediately began to roar, to the admiration and delight
of all Agrigentum. Cicero says this bull was carried to Carthage, at
the above taking of Agrigentum, and was restored again by Scipio, after
the destruction of the former city. Empedocles, the philosopher, born
in Agrigentum, has a memorable saying concerning his fellow-citizens:
“That the Agrigentines squandered their money as excessively every day,
as if they expected not to live till the morrow; and that they built
edifices to live in, as if they fancied they should never die.”
In the first Punic war, Agrigentum, of which the Carthaginians had
made a place of arms, was taken by the Romans, after a siege of seven
months,--A.C. 262.
Some years after, the Carthaginians retook Agrigentum in a few days,
and completely razed it to the ground. It was, however, afterwards
rebuilt, and is now called Gergenti.