AgrigentoArticle Free Pass Agrigento, formerly (until 1927)
Girgenti, Greek Acragas or Akragas, Latin Agrigentum, city, near
the southern coast of Sicily, Italy. It lies on a plateau
encircled by low cliffs overlooking the junction of the Drago
(ancient Hypsas) and San Biagio (Acragas) rivers and is
dominated from the north by a ridge with twin peaks. Agrigento
was a wealthy ancient city founded about 581 bc by Greek
colonists from Gela. It was ruled 570–554 bc by the notorious
tyrant Phalaris, who was reputed to have had men roasted alive
in a brazen bull, and it reached its peak in 480 when the tyrant
Theron, in alliance with Syracuse, won the decisive Battle of
Himera over the Carthaginians. In 470 the tyranny was replaced
by a democracy. Agrigento was the birthplace of the philosopher-
politician Empedocles. Under the tyranny it was a considerable
centre of the arts. The city was neutral in the struggle between
Athens and Syracuse but was ravaged by the Carthaginians in 406
bc, a disaster from which it nev