Agrigento
Agrigento is a city on the southern coast of the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy, capital of the province of Agrigento. As of 2025, with a population of 55,227, it is also the largest city in the province, 10th-largest in Sicily and 115th-largest in Italy.
Founded around 582 BC by Greek colonists from Gela, Agrigento, then known as Akragas, was one of the leading cities during the golden age of Ancient Greece. The city flourished under Theron's leadership in the 5th century BC, marked by ambitious public works and the construction of renowned temples.
Despite periods of dormancy during the Punic Wars, Agrigento emerged as one of Sicily's largest cities in the Republican era. During the Principate, Agrigento's strategic port and diverse economic ventures, including sulfur mining, trade and agriculture, sustained its importance throughout the high and late Empire. Economic prosperity persisted in the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, but excavations show decline in activity after the 7th century.
Agrigento is also the place of birth to several notable personalities, among which it is worth to mention Empedocles, the Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, who was a citizen of ancient Akragas, and Luigi Pirandello, dramatist and Nobel Prize winner for literature, who was born at contrada u Càvusu in Agrigento.
Agrigento, included among the UNESCO world heritage sites in 1997, was named Italian capital of culture for 2025.
History
Akragas was founded on a plateau overlooking the sea, with two nearby rivers, the Hypsas and the Acragas, after which the settlement was originally named. A ridge, which offered a degree of natural fortification, links a hill to the north called Colle di Girgenti with another, called Rupe Atenea, to the east. According to Thucydides, it was founded around 582–580 BC by Greek colonists from Gela in eastern Sicily, with further colonists from Crete and Rhodes. The founders of the new city were Aristonous and Pystilus. It was the last of the major Greek colonies in Sicily to be founded.Archaic period
The territory under Akragas's control expanded to comprise the whole area between the Platani and the Salso, and reached deep into the Sicilian interior. Greek literary sources connect this expansion with military campaigns, but archaeological evidence indicates that this was a much longer-term process which reached its peak only in the early fifth century BC. Most other Greek settlements in Sicily experienced similar territorial expansion in this period. Excavations at a range of sites in this region inhabited by the indigenous Sican people, such as Monte Sabbucina, Gibil-Gabil, Vasallaggi, San Angelo Muxano, and Mussomeli, show signs of the adoption of Greek culture. It is disputed how much of this expansion was carried out by violence and how much by commerce and acculturation. The territorial expansion provided land for the Greek settlers to farm, native slaves to work these farms, and control of the overland route from Acragas to the city of Himera on the northern coast of Sicily. This was the main land route from the Straits of Sicily to the Tyrrhenian Sea and Acragas' control of it was a key factor in its economic prosperity in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, which became proverbial. Famously, Plato, upon seeing the living standard of the inhabitants, was said to have remarked that "they build like they intend to live forever, yet eat like this is their last day." Perhaps as a result of this wealth, Acragas was one of the first communities in Sicily to begin minting its own coinage, around 520 BC.Around 570 BC, the city came under the control of Phalaris, a semi-legendary figure, who was remembered as the archetypal tyrant, said to have killed his enemies by burning them alive inside a bronze bull. In the ancient literary sources, he is linked with the military campaigns of territorial expansion, but this is probably anachronistic. He ruled until around 550 BC. The political history of Acragas in the second half of the sixth century is unknown, except for the names of two leaders, Alcamenes and Alcander. Acragas also expanded westwards over the course of the sixth century BC, leading to a rivalry with Selinus, the next Greek city to the west. The Selinuntines founded the city of Heraclea Minoa at the mouth of the Platani river, halfway between the two settlements, in the mid-sixth century BC, but the Acragantines conquered it around 500 BC.
Emmenid period
, a member of the Emmenid family, made himself tyrant of Acragas around 488 BC. He formed an alliance with Gelon, tyrant of Gela and Syracuse. Around 483 BC, Theron invaded and conquered Himera, Acragas' neighbour to the north. The tyrant of Himera, Terillus joined his son-in-law, Anaxilas of Rhegium, and the Selinuntines in calling on the Carthaginians to come and restore Terillus to power. The Carthaginians did invade in 480 BC, the first of the Greco-Punic Wars, but they were defeated by the combined forces of Theron and Gelon at the Battle of Himera. As a result, Acragas was affirmed in its control of the central portion of Sicily, an area of around 3,500 km2. A number of enormous construction projects were carried out in the Valle dei Templi at this time, including the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was one of the largest Greek temples ever built, and the construction of a massive Kolymbethra reservoir. According to Diodorus Siculus, they were built in commemoration of the Battle of Himera, using the prisoners captured in the war as slave labour. Archaeological evidence indicates that the boom in monumental construction actually began before the battle, but continued in the period after it. A major reconstruction of the city walls on a monumental scale also took place in this period. Theron sent teams to compete in the Olympic games and other Panhellenic competitions in mainland Greece. Several poems by Pindar and Simonides commemorated victories by Theron and other Acragantines, which provide insights into Acragantine identity and ideology at this time. Greek literary sources generally praise Theron as a good tyrant, but accuse his son Thrasydaeus, who succeeded him in 472 BC, of violence and oppression. Shortly after Theron's death, Hiero I of Syracuse invaded Acragas and overthrew Thrasydaeus. The literary sources say that Acragas then became a democracy, but in practice it seems to have been dominated by the civic aristocracy.Classical period
The period after the fall of the Emmenids is not well-known. An oligarchic group called "the thousand" was in power for a few years in the mid-fifth century BC, but was overthrown – the literary tradition gives the philosopher Empedocles a decisive role in this revolution, but some modern scholars have doubted this. In 451 BC, Ducetius, leader of a Sicel state opposed to the expansion of Syracuse and other Greeks into the interior of Sicily, invaded Acragantine territory and conquered an outpost called Motyum. The Syracusans defeated and captured Ducetius in 450, but subsequently allowed him to go into exile. Outraged by this comparatively light punishment, the Acragantines went to war with Syracuse. They were defeated in a battle on the Salso river, which left Syracuse the pre-eminent power in eastern Sicily. The defeat was serious enough that Acragas ceased to mint coinage for a number of years.Ancient sources considered Acragas to be a very large city at this time. Diodorus Siculus says that the population was 200,000 people, of which 20,000 were citizens. Diogenes Laertius put the population at an incredible 800,000. Some modern scholars have accepted Diodorus' numbers, but they seem to be far too high. Jos de Waele suggests a population of 16,000–18,000 citizens, while Franco de Angelis estimates a total population of around 30,000-40,000.
When Athens undertook the Sicilian Expedition against Syracuse from 415 to 413 BC, Acragas remained neutral. In 406 BC, however, the city was captured and sacked by Carthaginian forces, marking a decisive break in its classical prosperity.
Hellenistic period
In the later fourth century BC, conditions in Greek Sicily shifted again as Timoleon’s intervention led to the restoration and repopulation of numerous communities that had been depleted by decades of warfare and stasis. A central problem concerns the interpretation of Plutarch’s account, which states that settlers from “Elaia” took part in the restoration of Akragas. Earlier scholars commonly identified this Elaia with the Ionian city in southern Italy and inferred Ionian participation in the refounding of Akragas, but as archaeological excavations revealed no trace of Ionian influence at Akragas in the fourth century BC, this interpretation becomes problematic. Alternative readings, identifying Plutarch’s “Elaia” should be identified with an Epirote city in Thesprotia rather than the Italian Elia have been put foward, supported by a grant of proxenia by the Molossians to the people of Akragas with uncertain dating. Giacomo Manganaro favored the manuscript reading Elaías rather than Eleás, which he took to support identification with an Epirote Elaea rather than the Italian Elea. He further suggested that colonists from this Epirote city may have sailed to Sicily following the devastation of their territory by Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC.By the early Hellenistic period, Akragas’ autonomy was increasingly constrained by the re-emergence of Syracusan power under Agathokles. During Agathokles’ wars with Carthage and his African expedition, Diodorus presents Akragas as attempting to capitalize on Syracusan distraction by positioning itself as a leader of anti-Syracusan, "liberation" politics among Sicilian Greek communities. The Akragantines elected Xenodikos as general; he initially achieved successes, bringing many other Sicilian cities, including Gela and Enna, into alignment with Akragas’ coalition.
The momentum did not last. Syracusan forces commanded by Leptines and Demophilus repeatedly defeated the Akragantines in the field. Following a Syracusan victory outside Akragas, Leptines pursued Akragantine troops into the city. Xenodikos was indicted and then went into exile. De Lisle concludes that Syracusan battlefield success effectively terminated Akragas’ independent policy, with Xenodikos expelled and the Akragantine exiles previously resident at Syracuse likely reincorporated into the civic body.
During the early 3rd century BC, a tyrant called Phintias declared himself king in Akragas, also controlling a variety of other cities. His kingdom was however not long-lived.