Agrigentum

Agrigentum (Gr. Akragas), the modern Girgenti, a town on the south coast of Sicily, founded by a colony from Gela (582 B.C.), and in the earlier ages one of the most important places in the island. In its palmy days, about the end of the 5th century B.C., it is said to have contained 200,000 inhabitants; and its territory extended right across Sicily. After being at first free, and then subject to tyrants—one of whom was Phalaris—it was utterly demolished by the Carthaginians (405 B.C.), and never quite recovered its importance. In the course of the Punic wars, it was compelled to submit to the Romans. From 827 to 1086 A.D. it was in the possession of the Saracens, from whom it was conquered by Count Roger Guiscard. The modern Girgenti (q.v.) still shows numerous and splendid ruins, of which the best preserved is the Temple of Concord. The largest temple was that of Jupiter, 340 feet long, which was never finished, and of which only some fragments remain. Other ruins are the temples of Juno, of Hercules, and Æsculapius. Empedocles was born here.