Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2). Charles Bucke
condition, it is said to have contained not less than two hundred thousand persons, who submitted, without resistance, to the superior authority of the Syracusans.
Some idea of the wealth of this city may be imagined, from what is stated by Diodorus Siculus, of one of its citizens. At the time when Exenetes, who had been declared victor in the Olympic games7, entered the city in triumph, he did so in a magnificent chariot, attended by three hundred more, all drawn by white horses. Their habits were adorned with gold and silver; and nothing was ever more splendid than their appearance. Gellias, the most wealthy citizen of the place, erected several apartments in his house for the reception and entertainment of guests. Servants waited by his order at the gates of the city, to invite all strangers to lodge at their master's house, whither they conducted them. A violent storm having obliged one hundred horsemen to take shelter there, Gellias entertained them all in his house, and supplied them immediately with dry clothes, of which he had always a great quantity in his wardrobe.
Though this gives us some notion of his wealth, there is another description still more indicative of his humanity. He entertained the people with spectacles and feasts; and, during a famine, prevented the citizens from dying with hunger; he gave portions to poor maidens also, and rescued the unfortunate from want and despair. He had houses built in the city and the country, purposely for the accommodation of strangers, whom he usually dismissed with handsome presents. Five hundred shipwrecked citizens of Gela, applying to him, were bountifully relieved; and every man supplied with a cloak and a coat out of his wardrobe.
Agrigentum was first taken by the Carthaginians. It was strongly fortified. It was situated, as were Hymera and Selinuntum, on that coast of Sicily which faces Africa. Accordingly, Hannibal, imagining that it was impregnable except on one side, turned his whole force that way. He threw up banks and terraces as high as the walls; and made use, on this occasion, of the rubbish and fragments of the tombs standing round the city, which he had demolished for that purpose. Soon after, the plague infected the army, and swept away a great number of the soldiers. The Carthaginians interpreted this disaster as a punishment inflicted by the gods, who revenged in this manner the injuries done to the dead, whose ghosts many fancied they had seen stalking before them in the night. No more tombs were therefore demolished; prayers were ordered to be made according to the practice of Carthage; a child was sacrificed to Saturn, in compliance with a most inhumanly superstitious custom; and many victims were thrown into the sea in honour of Neptune.
The besieged, who at first had gained several advantages, were at last so pressed by famine, that all hopes of relief seeming desperate, they resolved to abandon the city. The following night was fixed on for this purpose. The reader will naturally imagine to himself the grief with which these miserable people must be seized, on their being forced to leave their houses, rich possessions, and their country; but life was still dearer to them than all these. Never was a more melancholy spectacle seen. To omit the rest, a crowd of women, bathed in tears, were seen dragging after them their helpless infants, in order to secure them from the brutal fury of the victor. But the most grievous circumstance was the necessity they were under of leaving behind them the aged and sick, who were unable either to fly or to make the least resistance. The unhappy exiles arrived at Gela, which was the nearest city in their way, and there received all the comforts they could expect in the deplorable condition to which they were reduced.
In the meantime Imilcon entered the city, and murdered all who were found in it. The plunder was immensely rich, and such as might be expected from one of the most opulent cities of Sicily, which contained two hundred thousand inhabitants, and had never been besieged, nor, consequently, plundered before. A numberless multitude of pictures, vases, and statues of all kinds, were found here, the citizens having an exquisite taste for the polite arts. Among other curiosities, was the famous bull of Phalaris, which was sent to Carthage.
At a subsequent period the Romans attacked this city, then in possession of the Carthaginians; took it, and the chief persons of Agrigentum were, by the consul's order, first scourged with rods, and then beheaded. The common people were made slaves, and sold to the best bidder. After this, Agrigentum is seldom mentioned in history; nor is it easy to ascertain the precise time in which the old city was destroyed, and the new one (Gergenti) was built. It was crushed in the general fall of the Greek state, and its unfortunate inhabitants, expelled by the Saracens, took refuge among the black and inaccessible rocks of Girgenti.
In ancient times, this city was greatly celebrated for the hospitality and luxurious mode of living, adopted by its inhabitants. On one side of the city there was a large artificial lake, about a quarter of a league in circumference, dug out of the solid rock by the Carthaginian captives, and to which the water was conveyed from the hills. It was thirty feet deep; great quantities of fish were kept in this reservoir for the public feasts; and swans and other fowls were kept upon it for the amusement of the citizens; and the depth of its waters secured the city from the sudden assault of an enemy. It is now dry, and converted into a garden.
It is, nevertheless, a curious fact, that though the whole space within the walls of the ancient city abounds with traces of antiquity, there are no ruins which can be supposed to have belonged to places of public entertainment. Yet the Agrigentines were remarkably fond of shows and dramatic amusements; and their connexion with the Romans must have introduced among them the savage games of the circus. Theatres and amphitheatres seem peculiarly calculated to resist the outrages of time; yet not a vestige of these are to be seen on the site of Agrigentum. They appear, however, to have been quite alive to the pleasures to be derived from sculpture and painting.
The Temple of Juno was adorned by one of the most famous pictures of antiquity; which is celebrated by many of the ancient writers. Zeuxis was determined to excel any thing that had gone before him, and to form a model of human perfection. To this end, he prevailed on all the finest women of Agrigentum, who were ambitious of the honour, to appear naked before him. Of these he chose five for his models; and moulding all the perfections of these beauties into one, he composed the picture of the goddess. This was ever looked upon as his masterpiece; but was, unfortunately, burnt when the Carthaginians took Agrigentum. At that period, many of the citizens retired into this temple, as to a place of safety; but as soon as they found the gates attacked by the enemy, they agreed to set fire to it, and chose rather to perish in the flames, than submit to the power of the conqueror. In the Temple of Hercules, there was another picture by Zeuxis. Hercules was represented, in his cradle, killing the two serpents; Alcmena and Amphitrion, having just entered the apartment, were painted with every mark of terror and astonishment. Pliny says, the painter looked upon this piece as invaluable; and, therefore, could never be prevailed upon to put a price upon it; but gave it as a present to the people of Agrigentum, to be placed in the temple of Hercules.
The temples, also, were very magnificent. That of Æsculapius, two columns and two pilasters of which now support the end of a farm-house, was not less celebrated for a statue of Apollo. It was taken from them by the Carthaginians, at the same time that the Temple of Juno was burnt. It was carried off by the conquerors, and continued the greatest ornament of Carthage for many years; but was, at last, restored by Scipio, at the final destruction of the city. Some of the Sicilians allege, but it is supposed without ground, that this statue was afterward carried to Rome, and still remains there, the wonder of all ages; and known to the whole world, under the name of the Apollo Belvidere.
An edifice of the Doric order, called the Temple of Concord, has still its walls, its columns, entablature, and pediments, entire. In proceeding from the Temple of Concord, you walk between rows of sepulchres, cut in the rock, wherever it admitted of being excavated by the hand of man, or was so already by that of nature. Some masses 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 supine, with the cavities turned upwards. There was also a temple dedicated to Ceres and Proserpine; with the ruins was formed a church, which now exists; and the road, leading to which, was cut out of the solid rock. In respect to the temple of Castor and Pollux, vegetation has covered the lower parts of the building, and only a few fragments of two columns appear between the vines. Of
Rollin.