AGYRION
(Agira) Sicily.
A city of ancient
but uncertain origins, 25 km NE of Enna at the head of
the valley of Katane. The city occupied the slopes of a
prominent hill (824 m), commanding the valley of the
Kyamosoros (Salso) to the N, and the valley of the
Chrysas (Dittaino) to the S. The main road connecting
inland Sicily with Katane passed through Agyrion; another road ran S to Morgantina. The modern town overlies
the ancient site; although little is known of the physical remains, certain monuments are mentioned by Diodoros (4.24.80; 16.83.3), who was a native. These monuments are attributed to the benevolence of either Herakles
or Timoleon. To the former, who passed through in the
course of his tenth labor, are credited the foundation of
precincts of Iolaos and of Geryon, and the creation of a
nearby lake. To Timoleon, who settled 10,000 Greeks at
Agyrion after 339 B.C., Diodoros attributes a major
building program. The theater he described as being the
finest in Sicily after the one at Syracuse; it is thought to
have stood near the churches of S. Pietro and SS. Trinità.
Diodoros also mentions a city wall with towers, and
tombs adorned with pyramids. The quarries that were
the source of stone for the Temple of the Meteres at
Engyon are thought to be located in the Fronté district.
Of the pre-Timoleonic settlement hardly anything is
known; a painted roof-tile of the second half of the 6th c.
was found on the summit of the hill and may belong to
a small temple. Our knowledge of Roman Agyrium is
equally limited.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
G. Favaloro,
Agyrium (1922) 33f; L.
Bernabó Brea,
NSc (1947) 250; G. Uggeri, “La Sicilia
nella ‘Tabula Peutingeriana,’”
Vichiana 6 (1969) 163.
M. BELL
