in
enormous fragments: the capitals of the columns look like huge rocks that
have been hurled there by some violent convulsion of nature.

A short distance from this temple are the ruins of the Temple of Venus,
and another of Castor and Pollux, of which two of the columns and part of
the entablature are entire, and the thin coat of cement or stucco which
covered them is in some parts as perfect as ever. The stone of which the
temples were constructed is of a very porous nature, a sort of tufa, full
of sea-shells, and when seen in the sunlight, of a golden hue; but they
were all covered with stucco, which, judging from what remains, was nearly
as hard as porcelain, and gave a beautiful and finished appearance to the
otherwise rude material. Of the other remains in Agrigentum, the limits of
this article will not allow me to speak. But the reader would ask, how
came these temples in such a state of ruin? On this subject there has been
some dispute; but their destruction may most reasonably be attributed to a
mightier agency than man's. Earthquake has shattered these gorgeous
temples; the time _when_ is not recorded. I am inclined to believe that
they were destroyed, as well as those of Selinus, by the dreadful
earthquakes that shook Italy and Sicily in the dark age of Valens and
Valentinian, three hundred and sixty-five years after CHRIST.

Let us now proceed to Syracuse, once the capital of Sicily, and the
birth-place of the great Archimedes. It was founded by Archias, one of the
Heraclidae, more than seven hundred years before the Christian era, and
according to some authors contained within its walls at one time, one
million two hundred thousand inhabitants; could maintain an army of one
hundred thousand foot, ten thousand horse, with a navy of five hundred
armed vessels. Little now remains of a place once so populous and so
powerful, save the shrunken modern city of Syracusa, containing about nine
thousand inhabitants, and a few almost unintelligible ruins scattered
among vineyards, olive-groves, and fields of corn, or over the high wastes
of the barren Epipole, on the summit of which the curious will find ruined
walls and fortresses of massive and beautiful masonry. From these the eye
commands the whole site of the ancient city. _There_ lies, at the distance
of three miles, the small island of Ortygia, on which is the modern town;
on its right is the narrow entrance from the sea, which lies beyond, to
the greater har