(anc. geogr.), a city of Sicily, part of the site of which is now occupied by a town called Girgenti from the old name. See Girgenti.

According to ancient authors, Dedalus, the most famous mechanician of fabulous antiquity, fled to this spot for protection against Minos, and built many wonderful edifices for Cocalus king of the island. Long after his flight, the people of Gela sent a colony hither 600 years before the birth of Christ; and from the name of a neighbouring stream called the new city Agrigas, whence the Romans formed their word Agrigentum. These Greeks converted the ancient abode of the Siculi into a citadel to guard the magnificent city, which they erected on the hillocks below.

An advantageous situation, a free government with all its happy effects, and an active commercial spirit, exalted their commonwealth to a degree of riches and power unknown to the other Greek settlements, Syracuse alone excepted. But the prosperity of Agrigentum appears to have been but of short duration, and tyranny soon destroyed its liberties.

Phalaris was the first that reduced it to slavery. His name is familiar to most readers on account of his cruelty, and the brazen bull in which he tortured his enemies: (See Phalaris.)—Phalaris met with the common fate of tyrants, and after his death the Agrigentines enjoyed their liberty for 150 years; at the expiration of which term Thero usurped the sovereign authority. The moderation, justice, and valour of this prince preserved him from opposition while living, and have refused his memory from the obloquy of posterity. He joined his son-in-law Gelo, king of Syracuse, in a war against the Carthaginians; in the course of which victory attended all his steps, and Sicily saw herself for a time delivered from her African oppressions. Soon after his decease, his son Thrasydeus was deprived of the diadem, and Agrigentum restored to her old democratical government. Ducretius next disturbed the general tranquillity. He was a chief of the mountaineers, descendants of the Siculi; and was an overmatch for the Agrigentines while they were unsupported by alliances, but sank under the weight of their union with the Syracusans. Some trifling alterations dissolved this union, and produced a war, in which the Agrigentines were worsted, and compelled to submit to humiliating terms of peace. Resentment led them to embrace with joy the proposals of the Athenians, then meditating an attack upon Syracuse. Their new friends soon made them feel that the sacrifice of liberty and fortune would be the price of their protection; and this consideration brought them speedily back to their old connections. But as if it had been decreed that all friendship should be fatal to their repose, the reconciliation and its effects drew upon them the anger of the Carthaginians. By this enemy their armies were routed, their city taken, their race almost extirpated, and scarce a vestige of magnificence was left. Agrigentum lay 50 years buried under its own ruins; when Timoleon, after triumphing over the Carthaginians, and restoring liberty to Sicily, collected the descendants of the Agrigentines, and sent them to re-establish the dwellings of their forefathers. Their exertions were rewarded with astonishing success; for Agrigentum rose from its ashes with such a renewal of vigour, that in very short time we find it engaged in the bold scheme of seizing a lucky moment, when Agathocles and Carthage had reduced Syracuse to the lowest ebb, and arrogating to itself supremacy over all the Sicilian republics. Xenodicus was appointed the leader of this arduous enterprise; and had his latter operations been as fortunate as his first campaign, Agrigentum would have acquired such a preponderance of reputation and power, that the rival states would not even have dared to attack it. But a few brilliant exploits were succeeded by a severe overthrow; the Agrigentines lost courage, disagreed in council, and humbly sued for peace to Agathocles. This commonwealth afterwards took a strong part with Pyrrhus; and when he left Sicily to the mercy of her enemies, threw itself into the arms of Carthage. During the first Punic war Agrigentum was the head-quarters of the Carthaginians, and was besieged by the Roman consuls, who after eight months blockade took it by storm. It nevertheless changed masters several times during the contest between those rival states, and in every instance suffered most cruel outrages. After this period very little mention of it occurs in history, nor do we know the precise time of the destruction of the old city and the building of the new one. See Girgenti.

The principal part of the ancient city lay in the vale; the present town, called Girgenti, occupies the mountain on which the citadel of Cocalus stood.

It was difficult to be more judicious and fortunate in the choice of situation for a large city. The inhabitants were here provided with every requisite for defence, pleasure, and comfort of life; a natural wall, formed by abrupt rocks, presented a strong barrier against assailants; pleasant hills sheltered them on three sides without impeding the circulation of air; before them a broad plain watered by the Acragas, gave admittance to the sea-breeze, and to a noble prospect of that awful element; the port or emporium lay in view at the mouth of the river, and probably the road across the flat was lined with gay and populous suburbs.

The hospitality and parade for which the Agrigentines are celebrated in history were supported by an extensive commerce; by means of which, the commonwealth was able to resist many shocks of adversity, and always to rise again with fresh splendour. It was, however, crushed by the general fall of Grecian liberty; the feeble remnants of its population, which had survived so many calamities, were at length driven out of its walls by the Saracens, and obliged to lock themselves up for safety among the bleak and inaccessible rocks of the present city.

At the north-east angle of the ancient limits, upon some foundations of large regular stones, a church has been erected; a road appears hewn in the solid rock for the convenience of the votaries that visited this temple in ancient days. It was then dedicated to Ceres and her daughter Persephone, the peculiar patronesses of Sicily. Bishop Blaise has succeeded to their honours.

At the fourth-east corner, where the ground, rising gradually, ends in a bold eminence, which is crowned with majestic columns, are the ruins of a temple said to have been consecrated to Juno. To the west of this, stands the building commonly called the Temple of Concord; the stone of which, and the other buildings, is the same as that of the neighbouring mountains and cliffs, a conglomeration of sea-fan and shells, full of perforations, of a hard and durable texture, and a deep reddish brown colour. This Doric temple has all its columns, entablature, pediments, and walls entire; only part of the roof is wanting. It owes its preservation to the piety of some Christians, who have covered half the nave, and converted it into a church consecrated under the invocation of St Gregory, bishop of Girgenti.

Proceeding in the same direction, you walk between rows of sepulchres cut in the rock wherever it admitted of being excavated by the hand of man, or was to already by that of nature. Some masses of it 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 upright with the cavities turned upwards. Only a single column marks the confused heap of moss-grown ruins belonging to the temple of Hercules. It stood on a projecting rock above a chasm in the ridge, which was cut through for a passageway to the emporium.

In the same tract, over some hills, is situated the building usually called the tomb of Thero. It is surrounded by aged olive-trees, which cast a wild irregular shade over the ruin. The edifice inclines to the pyramidal shape, and consists at present of a triple plinth, and a base supporting a square pedestal; upon this plain solid foundation is raised a second order, having a window in each front, and at each angle two Ionic pilasters crowned with an entablature of the Doric order. Its inside is divided into a vault, a ground room, and one in the Ionic story, communicating with each other by means of a small internal staircase.

In the plain are seen the fragments of the temple of Eucalapius; part of two columns and two pilasters, with an intermediate wall, support the end of a farm-house, and were probably the front of the cells. Pursuing the track of the walls towards the west, you arrive at a spot which is covered with the gigantic remains of the temple of Jupiter the Olympian, minutely described by Diodorus Siculus. It may literally be said that it has not one stone left upon another; and it is barely possible, with the help of much conjecture, to discover the traces of its plan and dimensions. Di- odorous calls it the largest temple in the whole island; but adds, that the calamities of war caused the work to be abandoned before the roof could be put on; and that the Agrigentines were ever after reduced to such a state of poverty and dependence, that they never had it in their power to finish this superb monument of the taste and opulence of their ancestors. The length of this temple was 370 Greek feet, its breadth 60, and its height 220, exclusive of the foundations or basement story; the extent and solidity of its vaults and underworks were wonderful; its spacious porticos and exquisite sculpture were suited to the grandeur of the whole. It was not built in the usual style of Sicilian temples with a cella of massive walls and a peristyle, but was designed in a mixt style with half columns let into the walls on the outside, the inside exhibiting a plain surface.

The next ruin belongs to the temple of Castor and Pollux; vegetation has covered the lower parts of the building, and only a few fragments of columns appear between the vines. This was the point of the hill where the wall stood on the brink of a large fish-pond spoken of by Diodorus: it was cut in the solid rock 30 feet deep, and water was conveyed to it from the hills. In it was bred a great quantity of fish for the use of public entertainments; swans and various other kinds of wild fowl swam along its surface, for the amusement of the citizens, and the great depth of water prevented an enemy from surprising the town on that side. It is now dry and used as a garden. On the opposite bank are two tapering columns without their capitals, most happily placed in a tuft of carob trees. Monte Toro, where Hannibal encamped with the Carthaginian army, before the Roman consuls drew him into an engagement that ruined his defensive plan, is a noble back-ground to this picturesque group of objects.—The whole space comprehended within the walls of the ancient city abounds with traces of antiquity, foundations, brick-arches, and little channels for the conveyance of water; but in no part are any ruins that can be presumed to have belonged to places of public entertainment. This is the more extraordinary, as the Agrigentines were a sensual people, fond of shows and dramatic performances, and the Romans never dwelt in any place long without introducing their savage games. Theatres and amphitheatres seem better calculated than most buildings to resist the outrages of time; and it is surprising that not even the vestiges of their form should remain on the ground.