The Agrigentines were addicted to all the vices which opulence usually produces. Their luxury and effemi nacy was proverbial. Empedocles, who attempted their reformation, reproached them with building as if they were to live for ever, and indulging in pleasure as if every day were to be their last. Thus enervated and corrupted, they could not long preserve their liberties ; but fell an easy sacrifice to the ambition of their rulers, or the power of their foreign enemies. Phalaris was the first who reduced them to slavery, B. C. 571. He con tinued to rule for 16 years, detested for his cruelty, till at length he was put to death, as some historians assert, in the brazen bull which he had employed for torturing his enemies, The Agrigentines, after his death, conti nued to enjoy their liberty for about 50 years, when Them usurped the sovereign power. During his active, mild, and just government, they were tranquil, secure, and happy. Ile joined his son-in-law Gelo, king of Syracuse, in opposing the Carthaginians; and, by their uniud valour. `icily was delivered for a time from her African Ins son who succeed ed him, was soon stripped of royalty ; and the Agrigen tines recovered their ancient democratical form of go %eminent. But their tranquillity was disturbed by Ducetius, a chief the mountaineers descended from the Siculi ; and though their alliance with the Syt u sans enabled them to withstand his attempts, they were involved in a quarrel with their allies themselves, and forced, after an unsuccessful contest, to submit to terms. Jealousy and resentment induced them to join the Athenians in an attack against Syracuse ; but finding that the protection of these new friends could only be purchased by the loss of liberty and fortune, they soon returned to their former connexion. About seven
years after the defeat of the Athenians, Agrigentum was besieged by a powerful army of Carthaginians, com manded by Hamilcar. The siege lasted for eight months, during which the inhabitants had suffered the most dreadful hardships: Many of them had removed to Gela, and those who remained were put to the sword. The city was reduced to ashes ; and its prodigious wealth, which had never before been plundered, was now rifled by the conquerors. For fifty years Agrigentum continued a heap of ruins; till Tiniolcon, after defeating the Car thaginians, and restoring the liberty of Sicily, collected the descendants of the Agrigentines, and sent them to rebuild the city of their ancestors. In a few years Agri gentum rose beyond its former power and importance. and even arrogated the supremacy over all the Sicilian republics. But their ambition was unsuccessful. After a lew brilliant exploits, they were defeated in a severe engagement by Agathocles, to whom they humbly sued for peace. The .Agrigentines afterwards joined with Pyrrhus, in his attempt upon Italy ; and, when that prince left Sicily, they had recourse to the Carthaginians for protection. Agrigentum was the head-quarters of their new allies during the first Punic war. It was therefore besieged by the Roman consuls ; and, though defended by a numerous garrison, under the command of Hanno, was compelled to surrender after a blockade of eight months. From that period nothing remarkable occurs in the history of Agrigentum. It was crushed in the general fall of the Grecian state ; and its wretched inhabitants, expelled by the Saracens, took refuge among the bleak and inaccessible rocks on which Girgenti now stands. (k)