GISBERT
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GISBERT
three miles from the sea, on a steep rock overlooking covered; the fact was comiueraorated in tlie coat of
a rich plain watered by the Drago. Besiiles a trade in arms of Girgenti. Other edifices of the city were; the
vegetables, fruits, and cereals, it is a mining centre for temple of Castor and Pollux, of which there remains
sulphur, soda, chalk, copper, and iron. Its marble an architrave supported on four pillars; the temple of
quarries are also rich. The Greeks called it Acragas; Vulcan; that of Ceres and Proserpine; and the re-
the Romans Agrigentum. It was
founded by a Greek colony from Gela
about 5S2 B. c. The upper portion
of the town was already in exist-
ence. It was called Camicum from
its position on a platform of Mt.
Camicus, and was surrounded by
Cyclopean walls. The Greeks set-
tled at the foot of this acropolis.
which they made the acropolis of
their city; soon the town was doing
a rich trade with the Carthaginians,
and was reckoned, after Syracuse,
the first town in Sicily. Like other
Doric towns, it became a repuljlic.
but was often under the control of
tyrants, e. g. Phalaris the Cruel
(570-555), Theron (488-472), who
with Gelon of Syracuse defeated the
Carthaginians under Hamilcar near
Himera (ISO b. c). The war of
Thrasydeus, son and successor of
Theron, on Hieron of Syracuse,
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mains of a stadium. In 827 the
Arabs, called in by the Byzantine
tribune Euphemios, captured the
city, and spread over the whole
island. In the eleventh century
Girgenti was the centre of Saracen
resistance to the Normans, who
finally captured it in 1087; thence-
forth it shared the fortune of the
Ivingdom of the Two Sicilies.
In the roll of its illustrious citizens are found the names of the philoso- phers Empedocles and Acron; the historian Philinos; the musician Metellos, Plato's master; the dram- atists Archion and Carenos; the orator Sophocles; the humanist Xicolo la Valle; and the dramatist Francesco del Carretto. Among the natural cm'iosities of note in the neighbourhood is the hill of Mac- calubba, studded with small craters, about thirty inches deep, spouting
brought Agrigentum under the tjTants of Syracuse cold water, carbonic acid, and hydrogen mixed with
(471 B. c), but it soon regained its freedom. In 406 asphaltum, chalk, sulphate of lime, etc. The cathe-
the Carthaginians under Hannibal and later under dral is built of ancient materials, and has a beautiful
Himilco besieged the city, captured it, slew the in- Madonna by Guido Reni, and paintings by Nunzio
habitants, and despoiled the temples of their artistic Magro. The church of S. Nicolo exhibits a very fine
treasures, which were car-
ried off to Carthage. Once
more it regained au-
tonomy, only to fall under
the tvranny of Phintias
(288 B. c). After this it
became the centre of
Carthaginian resistance to
Rome. In 262 the Ro-
mans captured it for the
first time, and in 210 they
gained complete control.
The wealth and splendour
of the ancient city are at-
tested by all writers, and
by ruins that remain till
this day. The principal
antiquitiesare: the temple
of Jupiter on the acropolis,
of which seven columns of
the peristyle remain; that
of Minerva, to which many
of the townsfolk fled in
406 B. c, seeking death
under its ruins rather than
fall into the hands of the
Carthaginians; in the dis-
trict known as Neapolis
the temple of Hercules
mentioned by Cicero in his
"Oratio in Verrem"; the
Temple of Concord, in old
Ionic style, the best pre-
served of them all, because
used as a church in later
times; over one of the cornices was carved a treaty of alliance between Agrigentum and Lilybteum. There are, moreover: the temple of Juno Lacinia; the tem- ple of jEsculapius, which contained a bronze statue of the god (this work of MjTon was carried away to Carthage but restored by Scipio Africanus); the tem- ple of Olympian Jove, according to Polybius the
Norman doorway. Gir-
genti venerates St.Liber-
tinus as its earliest apos-
tle; he is said to have
been sent thither by St.
Peter. The earliest bishop
of whose date we are cer-
tain is St. Potaraius, a
contemporary of Pope
Agapetus I (535-36). St.
tiregory I, Bishop of Agri-
gentum, saitl to have been
martyred in 262, is proba-
i 'ly only a double of the
homonymous bishop who
was a contemporarj' of St.
(Iregory the Great. The
list of bishops, interrupted
by the Saracen invasion,
began again in 1093 with
.>t. Gerlando. Other bish-
ops of note are: Rinaldo
di Acquaviva (1244), who
restored the cathedral
and crowned King Man-
fred, for which latter ac-
tion he was excommuni-
cated by Alexander IV;
and Fra Matteo Giramara,
called the Blessed. Gir-
genti is a suffragan of
Monreale, has 66 parishes
and 381,000 souls, 10 re-
ligious houses for men,
and 42 for women. It is
also a centre for the Azione Cattolica Sociale in Sicilv. PiRRi. Sirilin .Sacra (16381, II. 263-:3S4; Srdeil., I. 691-764;
Cappelletti, Z,ecAiese(i'//a;ta.XXI: Picone, Memorie storiche
agriqentine; Rocco, Girgenti in Italia Artistica (Bergamo,
1904), X; Chevaueb, Topo-bibl., s. v.
U. Benigni. Gisbert, Blaise, French rhetorician and critic;
EDRAL OF Girgenti
largest and most beautiful in Sicily. In 1401 three b. at Cahors, 21 February, 16,57; d. at Montpellier, 21
colossal caryatides supporting an architrave were dis- February, 1731. Having entered the Society of Jesus
