in Ancient Geography, 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, Daedalus, 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 582 years before the birth of Christ, and, from the name of a neighbouring stream, called the new city Aeryagas, whence the Romans formed the 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 who reduced it to slavery. His name is familiar to most readers on account of the cruelty with 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 sixty years; at the expiration of which term Therons usurped the sovereign authority. The moderation, justice, and valour of this prince preserved him from opposition while living, and have rescued 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 oppressors. Soon after his decease, his son Thrasydaeus was deprived of the diadem, and Agrigentum restored to her old democratical government, which she retained till the Carthaginian invasion in 406 B.C., a period of more than sixty years. During this interval of prosperity were executed most of those splendid public works which excited the admiration of succeeding ages, and caused their citizen Empedocles to remark, "that the Agrigentines built their dwellings as though they should exist for ever, and indulged in luxury as if they were to die on the morrow." The total number of the inhabitants at this period was estimated by Diodorus at 200,000. But their prosperity was not entirely without interruption; for the Agrigentines having engaged in hostilities with the mountain chief Ducetius, the conduct of the Syracusans towards that chieftain occasioned a war between these two rival states, which terminated in the signal defeat of the Agrigentines at the river Himera. But a more terrible reverse awaited them: they were attacked by the Carthaginians in 406 B.C., and by this enemy their armies were routed, their city taken, their race almost extirpated, and scarce a vestige of magnificence was left. It appears, however, that some of the fugitive inhabitants availed themselves of permission to return to the ruined city, and after a few years were even able to shake off the yoke of Carthage, and attach themselves to the cause of Dionysius. But the city was so far from having recovered its previous importance, that Timoleon, after his triumph over the Carthaginians in 340, found it necessary to re-colonize it with citizens from Velia in Italy. This measure was crowned with astonishing success; for Agrigentum rose from its ashes with such a renewal of vigour, that in a 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. Xenodocus 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 have even 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 herself into the arms of Carthage. During the first Punic war Agrigentum was the headquarters 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 contests between these 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.

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.

Agrigentum occupied a hill of considerable extent, but small elevation, rising between the small rivers Acragas and Hypsea, and was remarkable for its strength as a fortress. 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. Of its many celebrated edifices, the most magnificent was the temple of Olympian Jupiter, which, according to Diodorus, was 340 feet long, 160 broad, and 120 in height, without including the basement; each fluting of the columns being of capacity sufficient to admit the body of a man. Of this vast structure nothing remains but the basement and a few fragments of the columns and entablature; but these, and many other monuments less ruinous, attest the ancient wealth and magnificence of the Agrigentines.