AGRIGENTUM.
59. But Diodorus Siculus, in his books On the Library,
says that "the citizens of Agrigentum prepared for Gelon
a very costly swimming-bath, being seven stadia in circumference
and twenty cubits deep; and water was introduced
into it from the rivers and fountains, and it served for a great
pond to breed fish in, and supplied great quantities of fish
for the luxury and enjoyment of Gelon. A great number of
swans also," as he relates, "flew into it; so that it was a very
beautiful sight. But afterwards the lake was destroyed by
becoming filled with mud." And Duris, in the tenth book
of his History of Agathocles, says that near the city of Hipponium
a grove is shown of extraordinary beauty, excellently
well watered; in which there is also a place called the Horn
of Amalthea; and that this grove was made by Gelon. But
Silenus of Calatia, in the third book of his History of Sicily,
says that near Syracuse there is a garden laid out in a most
expensive manner, which is called Mythus, in which Hiero
the king used to transact his business. And the whole country
about Panormus,[1] in Sicily, is called The Garden, because it
is full of highly-cultivated trees, as Callias tells us in the
eighth book of his History of Agathocles.
And Posidonius, in the eighth book of his History, speaking of Damophilus the Sicilian, by whose means it was that the Servile war was stirred up, and saying that he was a slave to his luxury, writes as follows:—"He therefore was a slave to luxury and debauchery. And he used to drive through the country on a four-wheeled chariot, taking with him horses, and servants of great personal beauty, and a disorderly crowd of flatterers and military boys running around his chariot. And ultimately he, with his whole family, perished in a disgraceful manner, being treated with the most extreme violence and insult by his own slaves.
60. And Demetrius Phalereus, as Duris says in the sixteenth volume of his Histories, being possessed of a revenue of twelve hundred talents a-year, and spending a small portion of it on his soldiers, and on the necessary expenses of the state, squandered all the rest of it on gratifying his innate love of debauchery, having splendid banquets every day, and a great number of guests to feast with him. And in the prodigality of his expense in his entertainments, he outdid even
- ↑ The modern Palermo.