The citadel of Agrigentum (Sicily) was situated on Mount Agragas; the
city in the vale below; forming a magnificent spectacle at a distance.
It was founded by a native of Rhodes, according to Polybius; but by a
colony from Ionia, according to Strabo; about one hundred and eighty
years after the founding of Syracuse. Thucydides, however, says that it
was founded by a colony from Gela. The government was at first
monarchical; afterwards democratical.
Phalaris, so well known for his superior talent and tyranny, usurped the
sovereignty, which for some time afterwards was under the sway of the
Carthaginians. In its most flourishing condition, it is said to have
contained not less than two hundred thousand persons, who submitted,
without resistance, to the superior authority of the Syracusans.
Some idea of the wealth of this city may be imagined, from what is
stated by Diodorus Siculus, of one of its citizens. At the time when
Exenetes, who had been declared victor in the Olympic games[7], entered
the city in triumph, he did so in a magnificent chariot, attended by
three hundred more, all drawn by white horses. Their habits were adorned
with gold and silver; and nothing was ever more splendid than their
appearance. Gellias, the most wealthy citizen of the place, erected
several apartments in his house for the reception and entertainment of
guests. Servants waited by his order at the gates of the city, to invite
all strangers to lodge at their master's house, whither they conducted
them. A violent storm having obliged one hundred horsemen to take
shelter there, Gellias entertained them all in his house, and supplied
them immediately with dry clothes, of which he had always a great
quantity in his wardrobe.
Though this gives us some notion of his wealth, there is another
description still more indicative of his humanity. He entertained the
people with spectacles and feasts; and, during a famine, prevented the
citizens from dying with hunger; he gave portions to poor maidens also,
and rescued the unfortunate from want and despair. He had houses built
in the city and the country, purposely for the accommodation of
strangers, whom he usually dismissed with handsome presents. Five
hundred shipwrecked citizens of Gela, applying to him, were bountifully
relieved; and every man supplied with a cloak and a coat out of his
wardrobe.
Agrigentum was first taken by the Carthaginians. It was strongly
fortified. It was situated, as were Hymera and Selinuntum, on that coast
of Sicily which faces Africa. Accordingly, Hannibal, imagining that it
was impregnable except on one side, turned his whole force that way. He
threw up banks and terraces as high as the walls; and made use, on this
occasion, of the rubbish and fragments of the tombs standing round the
city, which he had demolished for that purpose. Soon after, the plague
infected the army, and swept away a great number of the soldiers. The
Carthaginians interpreted this disaster as a punishment inflicted by the
gods, who revenged in this manner the injuries done to the dead, whose
ghosts many fancied they had seen stalking before them in the night. No
more tombs were therefore demolished; prayers were ordered to be made
according to the practice of Carthage; a child was sacrificed to Saturn,
in compliance with a most inhumanly superstitious custom; and many
victims were thrown into the sea in honour of Neptune.
The besieged, who at first had gained several advantages, were at last
so pressed by famine, that all hopes of relief seeming desperate, they
resolved to abandon the city. The following night was fixed on for this
purpose. The reader will naturally imagine to himself the grief with
which these miserable people must be seized, on their being forced to
leave their houses, rich possessions, and their country; but life was
still dearer to them than all these. Never was a more melancholy
spectacle seen. To omit the rest, a crowd of women, bathed in tears,
were seen dragging after them their helpless infants, in order to secure
them from the brutal fury of the victor. But the most grievous
circumstance was the necessity they were under of leaving behind them
the aged and sick, who were unable either to fly or to make the least
resistance. The unhappy exiles arrived at Gela, which was the nearest
city in their way, and there received all the comforts they could expect
in the deplorable condition to which they were reduced.
In the meantime Imilcon entered the city, and murdered all who were
found in it. The plunder was immensely rich, and such as might be
expected from one of the most opulent cities of Sicily, which contained
two hundred thousand inhabitants, and had never been besieged, nor,
consequently, plundered before. A numberless multitude of pictures,
vases, and statues of all kinds, were found here, the citizens having an
exquisite taste for the polite arts. Among other curiosities, was the
famous bull of Phalaris, which was sent to Carthage.
At a subsequent period the Romans attacked this city, then in possession
of the Carthaginians; took it, and the chief persons of Agrigentum were,
by the consul's order, first scourged with rods, and then beheaded. The
common people were made slaves, and sold to the best bidder. After
this, Agrigentum is seldom mentioned in history; nor is it easy to
ascertain the precise time in which the old city was destroyed, and the
new one (_Gergenti_) was built. It was crushed in the general fall of
the Greek state, and its unfortunate inhabitants, expelled by the
Saracens, took refuge among the black and inaccessible rocks of
Girgenti.
In ancient times, this city was greatly celebrated for the hospitality
and luxurious mode of living, adopted by its inhabitants. On one side of
the city there was a large artificial lake, about a quarter of a league
in circumference, dug out of the solid rock by the Carthaginian
captives, and to which the water was conveyed from the hills. It was
thirty feet deep; great quantities of fish were kept in this reservoir
for the public feasts; and swans and other fowls were kept upon it for
the amusement of the citizens; and the depth of its waters secured the
city from the sudden assault of an enemy. It is now dry, and converted
into a garden.
It is, nevertheless, a curious fact, that though the whole space within
the walls of the ancient city abounds with traces of antiquity, there
are no ruins which can be supposed to have belonged to places of public
entertainment. Yet the Agrigentines were remarkably fond of shows and
dramatic amusements; and their connexion with the Romans must have
introduced among them the savage games of the circus. Theatres and
amphitheatres seem peculiarly calculated to resist the outrages of time;
yet not a vestige of these are to be seen on the site of Agrigentum.
They appear, however, to have been quite alive to the pleasures to be
derived from sculpture and painting.
The Temple of Juno was adorned by one of the most famous pictures of
antiquity; which is celebrated by many of the ancient writers. Zeuxis
was determined to excel any thing that had gone before him, and to form
a model of human perfection. To this end, he prevailed on all the finest
women of Agrigentum, who were ambitious of the honour, to appear naked
before him. Of these he chose five for his models; and moulding all the
perfections of these beauties into one, he composed the picture of the
goddess. This was ever looked upon as his masterpiece; but was,
unfortunately, burnt when the Carthaginians took Agrigentum. At that
period, many of the citizens retired into this temple, as to a place of
safety; but as soon as they found the gates attacked by the enemy, they
agreed to set fire to it, and chose rather to perish in the flames, than
submit to the power of the conqueror. In the Temple of Hercules, there
was another picture by Zeuxis. Hercules was represented, in his cradle,
killing the two serpents; Alcmena and Amphitrion, having just entered
the apartment, were painted with every mark of terror and astonishment.
Pliny says, the painter looked upon this piece as invaluable; and,
therefore, could never be prevailed upon to put a price upon it; but
gave it as a present to the people of Agrigentum, to be placed in the
temple of Hercules.
The temples, also, were very magnificent. That of Æsculapius, two
columns and two pilasters of which now support the end of a farm-house,
was not less celebrated for a statue of Apollo. It was taken from them
by the Carthaginians, at the same time that the Temple of Juno was
burnt. It was carried off by the conquerors, and continued the greatest
ornament of Carthage for many years; but was, at last, restored by
Scipio, at the final destruction of the city. Some of the Sicilians
allege, but it is supposed without ground, that this statue was
afterward carried to Rome, and still remains there, the wonder of all
ages; and known to the whole world, under the name of the Apollo
Belvidere.
An edifice of the Doric order, called the Temple of Concord, has still
its walls, its columns, entablature, and pediments, entire. In
proceeding from the Temple of Concord, you walk between rows of
sepulchres, cut in the rock, wherever it admitted of being excavated by
the hand of man, or was so already by that of nature. Some masses are
hewn into the shape of coffins; others drilled full of small square
holes, employed in a different mode of interment, and serving as
receptacles of urns. One ponderous piece of the rock lies in an
extraordinary position. By the failure of its foundation, or the shock
of an earthquake, it has been loosened from the general quarry, and
rolled down the declivity, where it now remains supine, with the
cavities turned upwards. There was also a temple dedicated to Ceres and
Proserpine; with the ruins was formed a church, which now exists; and
the road, leading to which, was cut out of the solid rock. In respect to
the temple of Castor and Pollux, vegetation has covered the lower parts
of the building, and only a few fragments of two columns appear between
the vines. Of the Temple of Venus, about one half remains; but the glory
of the place was the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, three hundred and forty
feet long, sixty broad, and one hundred and twenty in height. Its
columns and porticos were in the finest style of architecture; and its
bas-reliefs and paintings executed with admirable taste. On its eastern
walls was sculptured the Battle of the Giants; while the western
represented the Trojan War; corresponding exactly with the description
which Virgil had given of the painting in the Temple of Juno at
Carthage.
Diodorus Siculus extols the beauty of the columns which supported the
building; the admirable structure of the porticos, and the exquisite
taste with which the bas-reliefs and paintings were executed; but he
adds, that the stately edifice was never finished. Cicero, against
Verres, speaks of the statues he carried away. Mr. Swinburne says, that
it has remaining not one stone upon another; and that it is barely
possible, with the liberal aid of conjecture, to discover the traces of
its plan and dimensions. He adds, however, that St. Peter's at Rome
exceeds this celebrated temple more than doubly in every dimension;
being two hundred and fifteen feet higher, three hundred and thirty-four
longer, and four hundred and thirty-three wider.
Added to these, there is now remaining a monument of Tero, king of
Agrigentum, one of the first of the Sicilian tyrants. The great
antiquity of this monument may be gathered from this; that Tero is not
only mentioned by Diodorus, Polybius, and the more modern of the ancient
historians, but likewise by Herodotus, and Pindar, who dedicates two of
his Olympic Odes to him; so that this monument must be much more than
two thousand years old. It is a kind of pyramid, the most durable of
forms; and is surrounded by aged olive-trees, which cast a wild,
irregular shade over the ruin.
All these mighty ruins of Agrigentum, and the whole mountain on which it
stands, says Mr. Brydone, is composed of an immense concretion of
seashells, run together, and cemented by a kind of sand, or gravel, and
now become as hard, and perhaps more durable, than even marble itself.
This stone is white before it has been exposed to the air; but in the
temples and other ruins it is become "set," of a very dark brown. These
shells are found on the very summit of the mountain, which is at least
fourteen or fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea.
The celebrated Empedocles was a native of this city; one of the finest
spirits that ever adorned the earth. His saying, in regard to his
fellow-citizens, is well known;--viz., that they squandered their money
so excessively every day, that they seemed to expect it could never be
exhausted; and that they built with such solidity and magnificence, as
if they thought they should live for ever[8].