Chap. III.
GRECIAN.
61
two rivers, the Agragas and the Ilypsa. Polybius thus describes it:—“The city ofAgrigentum surpasses most other cities, not only by its fortifications, but also by the
beauty and magnificence of its edifices, and being only 18 stadia from the sea, is abundantlysupplied with fish. It is completely fortified both by nature and by art, and its walls arebuilt upon a rock, which forms an excellent foundation ; above all, it has been renderedinaccessible by the labours of men, where it was not so of itself. Besides, this city ispartly surrounded by rivers, on the south by the Agragas, and on the west by the Ilypsa ;and on that side regarding the east is the citadel, which is surrounded by a deep ravine.There are erected on the heights of this citadel a temple of Minerva, another of Jupiter ;and as Agrigentum was originally colonised from Rhodes, the worship of the god is thesame as that of the Rhodians . Among many other things with which this city is enriched,are several beautiful temples and magnificent porticoes; as the temple of Jupiter Olympus,which is the most sumptuous, yielding to none in Greece either in beauty or grandeur.
“ Agrigentum was admirably adapted for commerce, from whence it derived all its wealth.Situated on the southern coast of Sicily , it carried on a vast trade with both Tyre and Sidon.Its territory was highly fertile, extending over 1000 square miles, and, according toDiogenes Laertius this small territory contained 800,000 inhabitants. They exhibitedconsiderable taste in the fine arts, and it was observed by Plato , they built as if they wereto live for ever, and feasted as though they were to die on the morrow. It is impossibleto account for the great magnificence of this city, where all the merchants w*ere princes.The most flourishing period in its history was comprised in one century, which terminatedabout 405 years before Christ, when the Carthaginians besieged and destroyed it, at whichtime, says Diodorus Siculus , the temple of Jupiter was the most considerable on the island,and that when the Agrigentines were on the point of roofing it in, war put an end to theiroperations: after that the city was so far reduced, that they no longer had the means tofinish it.”
The length of this temple is 369 feet 6 inches, the breadth 182 feet 8 inches, which byno means accords with the dimensions left us by Diodorus , who gives 340 feet for thelength, and 60 feet only for the breadth. In the front are seven columns, and double thatnumber on the flanks, the angles included, —a disposition usually met with in the early Greek temples. The columns are built in a wall, and project a little more than half their diameter :they are 13 feet in diameter, and their projection 7 feet 7 inches; they have eleven flutes;from centre to centre they measure 26 feet 9 inches ; from the outer face of the column to theface of the internal wall, which united with it, is a thickness of 15 feet. The height ofthe steps on which the bases of the columns rest is 14 feet; the base of the column, whichis an unusual feature in the Greek Doric , is 4 feet in height ; the column, capital, and base