DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4266#0004
2 INTRODUCTION.
during ag6s, for the modern town and the port, left but an unpromising prospect of success.
" The shade only of the object of our desires " (says Winkelmann) " remains to us, but we aspire
the more ardently to recover what is lost; our inheritance from antiquity is scanty, but we turn
and re-examine each stone, and our researches lead us at least to probabilities, approaching to cer-
tainty; and may be always more instructive than those accounts given us by the ancient writers, which,
excepting a few indications, are to be considered merely as historical."
The most flourishing period in the history of Agrigentum is comprised in about one century,
at the expiration of which, in the third year of the 93d Olympiad, B. c. 405, the Carthaginians be-
sieged and destroyed the city.
The historian assures us that this Temple was then about to be completed ; and the extent and
the vastness of the work considered, it can never be doubted that twenty years at least must have
been employed in its erection. At that time the temples of Athens had been rebuilt, and the splendour
of the age of Pericles must have excited the emulation of all the states of Greece, and probably sti-
mulated them to surpass, at least in dimension, those works, the excellence of which they could not
hope to equal \ And it may be remarked of all the Architecture of Agrigentum, that it partakes
more of the new system of proportion adopted in Athens, though but a rude imitation, than the
more ancient system exhibited in the temples at Selinuntum, and other cities of Sicily.
Polybius visited the temple 256 years after the siege, and gives testimony of its magnifi-
cence b; " for though ", he says, " it never received all those decorations which were intended, yet,
as regards its plan and size, it was inferior to none of the temples of Greece."
And Diodorus Siculus, nearly 400 years after its destruction, gives the following account of its
remains c:—
11 The structure of the Sacred Temples, particularly that of Jove, affords us the strongest
proofs of the magnificence of the people of that time ; many of these are consumed by fire, others
are entirely ruined in the repeated sieges of the city ; but the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, which is
by far the most considerable in the island, was never entirely completed. When the A<mgentines
were on the point of putting on the roof, war interrupted their operations; and after that time
the city was so far reduced in circumstances, that they had no longer the means to finish it. The
length of the temple is 340 feet, and its breadth 60 feet; the height, exclusive of its basement, 120
feet. This temple is the largest in the whole island, and may be compared for size with any out
of Sicily; and the magnitude of its substructure deserves particular notice. Two methods of build-
ing temples were practised by the Greeks; the one allowed of making the naos the whole width
of the temple, and the other surrounding it with columns ; either method is adopted in this building,
for the columns are inserted in the walls of the naos, appearing circular without and square within ;
their periphery without is 20 feet, and the flutings are large enough to receive the body of a man ;
within it is 12 feet. The grandeur and height of its porticoes are stupendous ; they are embellished
with excellent sculpture: on the east is a representation of the contest of the Giants, and on the
west the siege of Troyd, in which each hero may be distinguished by characteristic form and dress."
To which description of Diodorus Siculus e Fazellus adds, " although the rest of this edifice in
a The colonies of Greece often exceeded the mother country jects. Pausanias, Lib. II. C. XVII.
in the magnificence of their works of art; of which the remains In the Pediment of the Treasury of the City of Megara, in
of Architecture and of the Medallic art are sufficient evidences. Elis, was represented also the battle of the Gods and Giants.
Ancient countries are attached to those primitive monuments and Pausanias, Lib. VI. C. XIX. and in the Temple of Theseus,
institutions established at their origin, however inadequate to A similar subject to that on the west, upon a temple at Car-
the more advanced state of civilization; while the colonies are thage, is thus supposed to offer itself to the admiring eyes of
enlightened by the experience of the mother country, and super- iEneas. iEn. I. 456.
add the advantages which emulation confers upon works of this _Videt Iliacas ex ordine pugnas,
nature. The colonies of America furnish existing evidence of Bellaque jam Fama totum vulgata per orbem ■
the truth of this observation M^%> Priamumque, et saevum ambobus Achillea,.
b Polybius, Lib. IX. C. XXVII.
« Diodorus Siculus, Lib. XIII. . These examples show the frequency of these representations
d In the Hereeum, (the Temple of Juno,) between Argos and (yiyano^ax^) *n the Temples of the Greeks.
Mycene, the pediments were also adorned with the same sub- e See Pancrazius, Antichite Sicilianc. Vol.11. Parte 11°. p. 77-
during ag6s, for the modern town and the port, left but an unpromising prospect of success.
" The shade only of the object of our desires " (says Winkelmann) " remains to us, but we aspire
the more ardently to recover what is lost; our inheritance from antiquity is scanty, but we turn
and re-examine each stone, and our researches lead us at least to probabilities, approaching to cer-
tainty; and may be always more instructive than those accounts given us by the ancient writers, which,
excepting a few indications, are to be considered merely as historical."
The most flourishing period in the history of Agrigentum is comprised in about one century,
at the expiration of which, in the third year of the 93d Olympiad, B. c. 405, the Carthaginians be-
sieged and destroyed the city.
The historian assures us that this Temple was then about to be completed ; and the extent and
the vastness of the work considered, it can never be doubted that twenty years at least must have
been employed in its erection. At that time the temples of Athens had been rebuilt, and the splendour
of the age of Pericles must have excited the emulation of all the states of Greece, and probably sti-
mulated them to surpass, at least in dimension, those works, the excellence of which they could not
hope to equal \ And it may be remarked of all the Architecture of Agrigentum, that it partakes
more of the new system of proportion adopted in Athens, though but a rude imitation, than the
more ancient system exhibited in the temples at Selinuntum, and other cities of Sicily.
Polybius visited the temple 256 years after the siege, and gives testimony of its magnifi-
cence b; " for though ", he says, " it never received all those decorations which were intended, yet,
as regards its plan and size, it was inferior to none of the temples of Greece."
And Diodorus Siculus, nearly 400 years after its destruction, gives the following account of its
remains c:—
11 The structure of the Sacred Temples, particularly that of Jove, affords us the strongest
proofs of the magnificence of the people of that time ; many of these are consumed by fire, others
are entirely ruined in the repeated sieges of the city ; but the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, which is
by far the most considerable in the island, was never entirely completed. When the A<mgentines
were on the point of putting on the roof, war interrupted their operations; and after that time
the city was so far reduced in circumstances, that they had no longer the means to finish it. The
length of the temple is 340 feet, and its breadth 60 feet; the height, exclusive of its basement, 120
feet. This temple is the largest in the whole island, and may be compared for size with any out
of Sicily; and the magnitude of its substructure deserves particular notice. Two methods of build-
ing temples were practised by the Greeks; the one allowed of making the naos the whole width
of the temple, and the other surrounding it with columns ; either method is adopted in this building,
for the columns are inserted in the walls of the naos, appearing circular without and square within ;
their periphery without is 20 feet, and the flutings are large enough to receive the body of a man ;
within it is 12 feet. The grandeur and height of its porticoes are stupendous ; they are embellished
with excellent sculpture: on the east is a representation of the contest of the Giants, and on the
west the siege of Troyd, in which each hero may be distinguished by characteristic form and dress."
To which description of Diodorus Siculus e Fazellus adds, " although the rest of this edifice in
a The colonies of Greece often exceeded the mother country jects. Pausanias, Lib. II. C. XVII.
in the magnificence of their works of art; of which the remains In the Pediment of the Treasury of the City of Megara, in
of Architecture and of the Medallic art are sufficient evidences. Elis, was represented also the battle of the Gods and Giants.
Ancient countries are attached to those primitive monuments and Pausanias, Lib. VI. C. XIX. and in the Temple of Theseus,
institutions established at their origin, however inadequate to A similar subject to that on the west, upon a temple at Car-
the more advanced state of civilization; while the colonies are thage, is thus supposed to offer itself to the admiring eyes of
enlightened by the experience of the mother country, and super- iEneas. iEn. I. 456.
add the advantages which emulation confers upon works of this _Videt Iliacas ex ordine pugnas,
nature. The colonies of America furnish existing evidence of Bellaque jam Fama totum vulgata per orbem ■
the truth of this observation M^%> Priamumque, et saevum ambobus Achillea,.
b Polybius, Lib. IX. C. XXVII.
« Diodorus Siculus, Lib. XIII. . These examples show the frequency of these representations
d In the Hereeum, (the Temple of Juno,) between Argos and (yiyano^ax^) *n the Temples of the Greeks.
Mycene, the pediments were also adorned with the same sub- e See Pancrazius, Antichite Sicilianc. Vol.11. Parte 11°. p. 77-