Greek city of  Akragas in Sicily
Silver Litra 8mm (0.66 grams) Struck circa 450-439 B.C.
Reference: HGC 2, 121 Rare R1; SNG ANS 3, nos. 989-995
AK/RA, Eagle standing left on Ionic capital.
Crab; mark of value, ΛΙ below.

Akragas (Agrigentum), was a city of great wealth and importance in the 5th  Century B.C., but in 406 B.C. it was sacked by the Carthaginians, a disaster  from which it never fully recovered; finally fell to the Romans in 210 B.C.

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Agrigento (Sicilian: Girgenti), is a city on the southern coast of Sicily , Italy , and  capital of the province of Agrigento . It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city  of Akragas (also known as Acragas (Ἀκράγας) in Greek, Agrigentum in Latin and Kerkent in Arabic ), one of the leading cities of Magna  Graecia during the golden age of Ancient Greece .

 History

Agrigento was founded on a plateau overlooking the sea, with two nearby  rivers, the Hypsas   and the Akragas, and a ridge to the north offering a degree of natural  fortification. Its establishment took place around 582-580 BCE and is attributed  to Greek colonists  from Gela , who  named it Akragas.

Akragas grew rapidly, becoming one of the richest and most famous of the Greek colonies  of Magna Graecia. It came to prominence under the sixth-century tyrants Phalaris   and Theron , and became a democracy   after the overthrow of Theron's son Thrasydaeus . Although the city remained neutral in the conflict between Athens and Syracuse , its democracy was overthrown when the city was sacked by the Carthaginians   in 406 BCE . Akragas never fully recovered its former status, though it revived  to some extent under Timoleon in  the latter part of the fourth century.

The city was disputed between the Romans   and the Carthaginians during the First Punic War.  The Romans laid siege to  the city in 262 BCE and captured it after defeating a Carthaginian relief  force in 261 BCE and sold the population into slavery. Although the Carthaginians  recaptured the city in 255 BCE the final peace  settlement gave Punic Sicily and with it Akragas to Rome. It suffered badly  during the Second Punic War   (218-201 BCE) when both Rome and Carthage fought to control it. The Romans  eventually captured Akragas in 210 BCE and renamed it Agrigentum,  although it remained a largely Greek-speaking community for centuries  thereafter. It became prosperous again under Roman rule and its inhabitants  received full Roman citizenship following the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE .

After the fall of the Roman Empire , the city passed into the hands of the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy and then the Byzantine Empire . During this period the inhabitants of Agrigentum largely  abandoned the lower parts of the city and moved to the former acropolis ,  at the top of the hill. The reasons for this move are unclear but were probably  related to the destructive coastal raids of the Saracens , Berbers and other peoples around this time. In 828 CE the Saracens captured  the diminished remnant of the city. They pronounced its name as Kerkent  in Arabic; it was thus Sicilianized   as "Girgenti". It retained this name until 1927, when Benito Mussolini 's government reintroduced an Italianized version of the Latin name.

Agrigento was captured by the Normans under Count Roger I   in 1087, who established a Latin bishopric there. The population declined during  much of the medieval period but revived somewhat after the 18th century. In  1860, the inhabitants enthusiastically supported Giuseppe  Garibaldi in his conquest of southern Italy (in the course of the Unification of Italy ). The city suffered a number of destructive bombing  raids during World  War II .

 Economy

Agrigento is a major tourist centre due to its extraordinarily rich  archaeological legacy. It also serves as an agricultural centre for the  surrounding region. Sulphur and potash have been mined locally since Roman times and are exported from the  nearby harbour of Porto Empedocle (named after the philosopher Empedocles   who lived in ancient Akragas). However, it is one of the poorest towns in Italy  on a per capita income basis and has a long-standing problem with organised crime , particularly involving the Mafia and the  smuggling of illegal drugs .

 Main  sights

Ancient Akragas covers a huge area — much of which is still unexcavated today  — but is exemplified by the famous Valle dei Templi ("Valley of the  Temples", a misnomer, as it is a ridge, rather than a valley). This comprises a  large sacred area on the south side of the ancient city where seven monumental  Greek temples in the Doric style were constructed during the 6th and 5th centuries BCE. Now  excavated and partially restored, they constitute some of the largest and  best-preserved ancient Greek buildings outside of Greece itself. They are listed  as a World  Heritage Site .

The best-preserved of the temples are two very similar buildings  traditionally attributed to the goddesses Juno  Lacinia and Concordia (though archaeologists believe this attribution to be incorrect).  The latter temple is remarkably intact, due to its having been converted into a Christian church in 597 CE. Both were constructed to a peripteral hexastyle design. The area around the Temple of Concordia was later re-used by early Christians as a catacomb , with tombs hewn out of the rocky cliffs and outcrops.

The Temple of Concordia.

The other temples are much more fragmentary, having been toppled by earthquakes   long ago and quarried for their stones. The largest by far is the Temple of Olympian Zeus , built to commemorate the Battle of Himera in 480 BCE : it is believed to have been the largest Doric  temple ever built. Although it was apparently used, it appears never to have  been completed; construction was abandoned after the Carthaginian invasion of  406 BCE. The remains of the temple were extensively quarried in the eighteenth  century to build the jetties of Porto Empedocle .  Temples dedicated to Hephaestus , Heracles   and Asclepius   were also constructed in the sacred area ,  which includes a sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone   (formerly known as the Temple of Castor and Pollux ); the marks of the fires set by the Carthaginians in 406 BCE can  still be seen on the sanctuary's stones.

Many other Hellenistic and Roman sites can be found in and around the town.  These include a pre-Hellenic cave sanctuary near a Temple of Demeter, over which  the Church of San Biagio was built. A late Hellenistic funerary monument  erroneously labelled the "Tomb of Theron" is situated just outside the sacred  area, and a first-century CE heroon   (heroic shrine) adjoins the 13th century Church of San Nicola a short distance  to the north. A sizeable area of the Greco-Roman city has also been excavated,  and several classical necropoleis and quarries are still extant.

Much of present-day Agrigento is modern but it still retains a number of  medieval and Baroque buildings. These include the fourteenth century cathedral and the  thirteenth century Church of Santa Maria dei Greci ("Our Lady of the Greeks"),  again standing on the site of an ancient Greek temple (hence the name). The town  also has a notable archaeological museum displaying finds from the ancient city.

 Famous  inhabitants

• Empedocles , the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, was a citizen of ancient Agrigentum
• Luigi  Pirandello , dramatist and Nobel prize winner for literature. Born at Contrada Kaos near Agrigento.