Agrigentum
The city of Agrigentum is not only superior to most
note
cities in the particulars I have mentioned, but
above all in beauty and elaborate ornamentation. It stands within eighteen stades of the
sea, so that it participates in every advantage
from that quarter; while its circuit of fortification is particularly strong both by nature and
art. For its wall is placed on a rock, steep and
precipitous, on one side naturally; on the other made so
artificially. And it is enclosed by rivers: for along the south
side runs the river of the same name as the town, and along
the west and south-west side the river called Hypsas. The
citadel overlooks the city exactly at the south-east, girt on the
outside by an impassable ravine, and on the inside with only
one approach from the town. On the top of it is a temple of
Athene and of Zeus Atabyrius as at Rhodes: for as Agrigentum was founded by the Rhodians, it is natural that this
deity should have the same appellation as at Rhodes. The
city is sumptuously adorned in other respects also with
temples and colonnades. The temple of Zeus Olympius is
still unfinished, but in its plan and dimensions it seems to
be inferior to no temple whatever in all Greece. . . .
Marcus Valerius persuaded these refugees, note
on giving them a pledge for the security of
their lives, to leave Sicily and go to Italy, on
condition that they should receive pay from the
people of Rhegium for plundering Bruttium,
and retain all booty obtained from hostile
territory. . . .
