SPLENDID SITE OF THE CITY. 15 raw materials. The wealth which thus flowed in upon Agrigentum, was expended in works of great magnificence and public utility; for, being a Grecian colony*, its inhabitants, like the rest of that people, were not more studious in acquiring wealth, than profuse in expending it upon the elegancies of life. The brightest era of its prosperity extended from the reign of the patriotic Theron, to the capture of the city by the Carthaginian Himilco: it was at that time foremost in celebrity among the states of Magna Grecia (Polyb. ix. c. 27); its citizens, like Tyrian princes, rivalled monarchs in extent of wealth, in hospitality, and encouragement of the fine arts: they built, according to the saying of their great Empedocles, as if they were about to live for ever, and lived as if they expected to die on the morrow†. During this period, those stately edifices arose, whose ruins still command the admiration of posterity, where they stand, the images of calm repose, the memorials of a mighty state, and the vindicators of its ancient grandeur. Time has spread over them its sombre tints, which blend harmoniously with the surrounding landscape, and throw, as it were, a sacred charm around its rocks and mountains. Agrigentum, in its site, possessed something of the magnificent peculiar to itself. Nature traced out its plan in a vast platform of rock; Art * Strabo erred in calling it an Ionian colony: it was planted by the people of Gela, who derived their origin from Rhodes, and the Rhodians were of Dorian descent. Hence the Agrigentines are rightly styled Dorians by Lucian ('EXAŋvés te övteg kài rò ápxãiov Awpiɛis Phal. prior 14). Perhaps in ages subsequent to its foundation, an Ionian colony may have settled there, which would reconcile historical discrepances. The best authors derive its Grecian name ("Akpayac) from a neighbouring river that washed its E. and S. S. E. sides, which itself seems to have derived its appellation from the abrupt and craggy ground through which it flowed, év rğ yã åkpa-See also an epigram quoted by Diogenes Laertius, lib. viii. : Ὦ φίλοι οι μέγα ἄσυ κατὰ ξανθς ̓Ακράγαντος Νάιετε ΑΚΡΑ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ, &c. To this river the people paid divine honours, under the form of a youth, and dedicated its statue in ivory at Delphi. Ælian. Var, Hist. l. ii. c. 33. The river Hypsas, which flowed on the other side of the city, seems to have a similar derivation (vos altitudo), and therefore, however bold the assertion may appear, I cannot help thinking, that Polybius is wrong, or that Stephens has mistaken him, in deriving the name of the city διὰ τὸ ἐύγειον. + Elian ascribes this saying to Plato, Var. Hist. lib. ii. Athenæus gives a curious account of a large building at Agrigentum, called the Trireme, adapted to the purposes of public luxury. 16 TEMPLES AND OTHER ANTIQUITIES. had but to perfect the design of that great architect. This magnificent area, which is nearly square, is elevated to a very considerable height above the surrounding territory; its perpendicular precipices formed the basis for walls; ravines penetrating into the interior offered most commodious situations for gates, whilst numerous little eminences scattered about within, seemed as if designed for the advantageous display of noble edifices *. Imagination can scarcely conceive a more glorious prospect than that which the southern cliff of this great city once displayed, surmounted by a long unbroken line of the finest monuments of Grecian art! Amongst them stood six majestic temples, of that severe Doric order, which so happily combines elegance and simplicity with solidity and grandeur. The S.E. angle is still seen crowned with the ruinated colonnade of Juno Lacinia † surrounded by broken masses of its entablature: next to it is a very fine temple nearly entire, except the roof, commonly supposed to have been dedicated to Concord, being indebted for this extraordinary state of preservation to the piety of those ages which converted it into a Christian church. That of Hercules, the next in order, seems to have been demolished by the violence of an earthquake, as it lies in all the confusion which such an overthrow would be expected to occasion. This was one of the finest temples of Agrigentum, and held by the citizens in peculiar veneration; in size and plan it resembled the Parthenon of Athens, and contained several chef d'œuvres of painting and statuary. Its inimitable picture of Hercules strangling * Pindar calls Agrigentum καλλίστ αν βροτεᾶν πολίων-Ακράγαντος ἔνδματον κολώναν. Pyth. Od. xii. Polybius thus accurately describes its site: 'ο δὲ περίβολος αυτῆς και φύσει και κατασκευῇ διαφερόντως ἠσφάλισαι· κεῖται γὰρ τὸ τεῖχος ἐπὶ πέτρας ἀκροτόμου και περιῤῥῶγος, ᾖ μὲν ἀντοφυῶς, ᾗ δὲ χειροποιήτου περιέχεται δὲ ποταμοῖς, &c. Lib. ix. c. 27. It is commonly called the temple of Juno Lucina, though Fazzello calls it that of Pudicitia, but quite upon conjecture: if it was dedicated to Juno at all, it was probably under the title of Lacinia, which was derived from Lacinium, a city of the Bruttii, where she was held in high esteem: vid. Epig. Nossidis in Brunck. Analect. vol. i. p. 194: and this is confirmed by Pliny (Nat. Hist. lib. xxxv. c. 9.) Tantus diligentia (sc. Zeuxis) ut Agrigentinis facturus tabulam quam in templo Junonis Lacinia publicè dicarent, inspexerit virgines eorum nudas et quinque elegerit, ut quod in quâque laudatissimum esset, pictura redderet. But the same story is told by Cicero of the temple of Juno at Crotona. TEMPLES AND OTHER ANTIQUITIES. 17 the serpents, was presented to the Agrigentines by Zeuxis; the adytum was adorned with a miracle of art, a statue of the presiding deity by Myro, who inscribed his own name upon the thigh, in small studs of silver. Cicero, in his lively description of a nocturnal attempt made by the emissaries of Verres to carry off this statue, takes notice of a circumstance, which shews how similar are the effects of superstition in all ages he observes, that its mouth and chin, though made of bronze, were actually worn by the kisses of its admiring votaries; "oscula perspicuo figunt impressa metallo." By a similar instance of zealous devotion Jupiter Capitolinus, who was catholically metamorphosed into a St. Peter *, and at present occupies his chair at Rome, has nearly lost the toes of one foot. Le peuple se livrant aux transports de son zèle De la foi des Latins atteste la ferveur +. The locality assigned to this temple, receives some confirmation from an expression of Cicero, in which he describes it as near the forum. "Herculis templum est apud Agrigentinos, non longè a foro, sanè sanctum apud illos et religiosum +." Now at a little distance from this spot on the right hand as you advance westward, are the remains of a long building raised on pilasters, and which, from its situation near the sea-gate, did very probably form part of the ancient forum of this great commercial city. But of all the edifices which Agrigentum, or perhaps any other state could boast, none exceeded in magnitude and grandeur the temple of * Thus also Apollo transferred his claims in a statue to Constantine the Great, which was placed on the top of his pillar at Constantinople, and struck by a thunderbolt in the reign of Nicephorus Botoniates. Vid. Excerp. Scylitz. Curopal. in fin. Cedreni Hist. p. 867. + Charlemagne, Chant ler. p. 23, to the note upon which passage the reader is referred. In Verrem, Act. ii. lib. 4. 18 TEMPLES AND OTHER ANTIQUITIES. Olympian Jupiter, which next occurs in the range we are describing. It is highly extolled by Polybius and Diodorus, and considered a specimen of the magnificence of the age itself; but the accounts of both these historians are lamentably deficient: from the latter we learn that its dimensions were on the extensive scale of 340 feet in length by 120 in height and 160 in breadth*; and when he wishes to give an astonishing proof of its magnitude, he observes that a man could shelter himself in the strigæ or fluting of the columns. Although no shaft either in whole or in part now remains, I was able to prove the truth of this assertion by measuring some fluting attached to one of the prostrate capitals, which I found exactly twenty inches in curvature: this by the gradual swell of the column would have expanded at the base to about two feet, a space quite sufficient to admit the body of a moderately sized man. Many peculiarities are remarkable in the construction of this edifice: it was technically termed, Pseudo-dipteral, i. e. it was not encircled by a colonnade or portico, but the pillars projected from the wall rather more than a semi-circumference, the intercolumniation being closed up by massive masonry, accurately joined without cement † : that part of the column which appeared in the interior of the temple, was in form of a square pilaster: each pediment was supported by the unusual number of seven columns, and the flanks by fourteen, including those at the angles; all these rested, contrary to the general practice of Doric architecture, upon their pedestals, instead of the common stylobate or sub-basement. The temple was hypæethral, and upon the vast pilasters of the cella, stood enormous statues, thirty feet in height, representing the giants, who having been vanquished in the Titanic war were represented here, after *All the editions of Diodorus have 60; an incredible supposition in itself, which I proved to be false by actual measurement. How inferior to these dimensions were even those of its great cognate temple at Elis, which according to Pausanias was only 230 feet long, 95 broad, and 68 high. This also was of the Doric order, but surrounded with a peristyle. Eliac. c. x. 2. + Thus, as Diodorus Siculus observes, it partook of the nature of a dipteral temple and one in Antis. TEMPLES AND OTHER ANTIQUITIES. 19 the manner of caryatids, sustaining on their elevated arms the ponderous entablature of their conqueror's temple*. From this circumstance the structure itself, in more modern times, was denominated the Temple of the Giants, and hence the city arms of Girgenti (three giants supporting a tower) derive their origin: in fact three of the original caryatids remained perfect till the year 1401, when they fell down by the shameful neglect of the inhabitants. They who first raised this mighty monument of human genius, seem to have built it for eternity; by that strange chance which frequently confounds all the devices of man, every trace of it is nearly swept away, whilst more humble and frail structures remain around it. There was but little ornament on the exterior of this temple, nor did it require any its sublimity and majestic proportions accorded not with decoration; even without it they were worthy of that Deity whose arm was thought to guide the thunderbolt. In the pediment, however, of the eastern portico was sculptured in high relief the Gigantomachia, or Assault of Heaven by the Titans, and on the opposite side was portrayed the capture of Troy with its attendant horrors, so admirably executed, that each Homeric hero might be distinguished by his costume and characteristic traits of countenance. A similar subject upon a temple of Carthage thus offers itself to the admiring eyes of Æneas. "videt Iliacas ex ordine pugnas Belleaque jam famâ totum vulgata per orbem, Atridas, Priamumque, et sævum ambobus Achillem." En. i. 456. The French traveller Denon makes a very erroneous and extraordinary assertion in his description of this fabric, viz. that the ancient * Their measure, as well as the complete plan and proportions of this wonderful temple, which has hitherto been a crux to every architect or antiquarian, was taken with incredible perseverance, ingenuity, and scientific skill, by my friend Mr. R. C. Cockerell, who intends soon to lay his discoveries before a public already taught to appreciate his uncommon talents. + The words of Fazzello are as follow: "Pars tamen ejus, tribus gigantibus columnisque suffulta diu post superstitit: quam Agrigentina Urbs insignibus suis additam adhuc pro monumento habet." |