AGRIGENTUM (Gr. 'AKpayas, mod. AGRIGENTO), an cient city, south coast of Sicily, 21m. from the sea. Founded by Greek colonists from Gela as late as 582 B.C., its favourable site for cultivation and trade with Carthage made it second only to Syracuse. Pindar calls it (3porEav iroXicov (fairest of mortal cities). Ruled at first by tyrants, in 472 a democracy was established. In the struggle between Syracuse and Athens (415 413) the city remained neutral. Its prosperity continued to in crease (its population is given at over 200,00o) until in 405 B.C. it was captured and plundered by the Carthaginians, a blow from which it never entirely recovered. It was colonized by Timoleon in 338 B.c. with settlers from Velia in Lucania, and in the time of the tyrant Phintias (289-279) it had regained some of its power. In the first Punic War, however, it was sacked by the Romans (2 61) and the Carthaginians (255), and finally in the second Punic War by the Romans (210). Still in the Roman period, it exported agricultural products, textile fabrics and sul phur. In the local museum are tiles used for stamping cakes of sulphur, which show that the mines, at any rate from the 3rd century A.D., were imperial property leased to contractors. The site is unusual and beautiful with a lofty ridge with two summits to the north. On the western summit is the modern town (985ft.), the eastern summit slightly higher, bears the name of Rock of Athena, owing to its identification by some scholars with the acropolis of Acragas as described by Polybius, who places upon it the temple of Zeus Atabyrius (said to have been erected by the half-mythical Phalaris) and that of Athena. The available space about 7o x 20 yds.) on the eastern summit is, however, too small. In the modern town, on the other hand, the remains of one temple are to be seen in the church of Sta. Maria dei Greci, while the other is generally supposed to have occupied the site of the cathedral. On the north both summits are defended by cliffs; on the south the ground slopes away somewhat abruptly from the eastern summit towards the plateau on which the town stood, while the western summit is separated from this plateau by a valley traversed by a branch of the Hypsas (mod. Drago), the deep ravine of which forms the western boundary and defence of the city. On the east is the valley of the Acragas (Fiume S. Biagio). The church of S. Biagio, above it, is built into the temple of Demeter which was preceded by a sanctuary in the cliffs. The Acragas defends the approach from the east and the deeper Hypsas that from the south-west. They unite south of the town and flow out in the small abandoned harbour. A row of important Doric temples crowns the southern slopes; they are built of the local porous stone, which is of a warm red brown colour, full of fossil shells and easily corroded when exposed to the air. Of all these temples the oldest is probably that of Heracles (eight columns of which have recently been re-erected), while the best preserved are those wrongly attributed to Hera and Concordia, which are very similar in dimensions ; the latter, indeed, lacks nothing but its roof, owing its preservation to its conversion into the cathedral in 597 by Gregory II., bishop of Girgenti. These temples are among the finest in existence. In front of the former, as in front of those of Heracles and Zeus, stood a huge altar for burnt offerings, as long as the facade of the temple itself. The cella of the temple of Heracles was modi fied in Roman times, and a statue of Asclepius seems to show change of cult.
In the colossal temple of Zeus the huge Atlantes (figures of Atlas), 25ft. in height, are noticeable. They seem to have stood in the inter-columniations halfway up the outside wall and to have supported the epistyle. The collapse both of this temple and of that of Heracles must be attributed to an earthquake ; many fallen blocks of the former were removed in 1756 for the con struction of the harbour of Porto Empedocle. The four columns erected on the site of the temple of Castor and Pollux are a modern (and incorrect) restoration in which portions of two buildings have been used. Of that of Hephaestus only two columns remain, while that of Asclepius, a mile to the south of the town, an anta and two pillars are preserved. Other remains are unimportant. Near the picturesque church of S. Nicolo is the so-called oratory of Phalaris, a tomb of the i st century B.C., 2 7if t. by 23-if t., and not far off on the east are two private houses of the Roman period. The fishpond (circumference said by Diodorus to be 7 stadia) is an enormous excavation south west of the city, with drains in its sides; the bottom is now an orange garden.
The wall line can be traced, but actual remains are small ex cept in the valley below the temple of Demeter (S. Biagio). East and west ravines gave protection, so a massive wall was un necessary, while near the south-east angle a breastwork was formed by the excavation of the natural rock, in later times honeycombed with tombs. Close to this temple on the west is the site of the gate known in later times as the Porta Aurea, through which the modern road passes.
Tombs of the Greek period have been found mainly on the west of the town, outside the probable line of the walls, between the Hypsas and a small tributary, the latter having been spanned by a bridge, now called Ponte dei Morti, of which one massive pier, 45ft. in width, still exists. Just inside the south wall is a Christian catacomb, and outside it a tomb in two storeys, a mixture of Doric and Ionic architecture, belonging probably to the end century B.C. A village of the Byzantine period has been explored at Balatizzo, immediately to the south of the modern town. The walls of the dwellings are entirely cut out of the natural rock.
The modern town, known as Girgenti till 1928 but now reverting to an older form of its name, is the capital of the province of Agrigento, and an episcopal see, 58 m. S. by E. of Palermo direct and 841 m. by rail. Pop. (1931) 26,602 (town), 30,03 2 (com mune). The cathedral occupies the highest point in the town; it was founded in the i3th century and there are other remains of architecture of this period. The museum contains fine vases, terra cottas, sculptures, etc. Porto Empedocle (pop. 1931, 54 m. S. by rail, is connected with Castelvetrano, on the line from Palermo to Trapani. It is the principal port for the shipment of sulphur, the mining district beginning just north of Agrigento.
See J. Schubring, Historische Topographic von Akragas (187o) .
(T. A.)