This paper focuses on the archaeological, textual and artistic evidence of the sanctuary (sanctuaries?) of Asklepios at Akragas during the Hellenistic and Roman times. Literary sources allow us to identify temples and cults in the city and in the territory: reporting the events in 262 BCE, Polybios (I 18 2), for instance, clearly mentions a sanctuary of Asklepios next to the city wall; Cicero (Verr. II 4 93) attests a religiosissimum fanum of Asklepios/Aesculapius without a specific information regarding its location. Thanks to the recent publication of the archaeological evidence and materials from the sanctuary and the temple H, it is well known that during the second half of the third and the second centuries the sacred area was gradually abandoned. So, how can we interpret Cicero’s testimony regarding the presence of a religiosissimum fanum in Akragas during the first century BCE? Is this a reference to a second sanctuary erected and dedicated to Asklepios/Aesulapius in Roman times? In order to understand what Cicero attests and correctly interpret the monumental evidence and the cityscape, I will consider the archaeological and artistic documents under a different perspective, providing a fresh frame and new configuration of the sacred spaces and concluding that Asklepios’ cult was moved from the territory into the city during the Hellenistic period, as attested by an original Greek statue of the god found in the temple A of Akragas.
Talk
Cityscaping and Asklepieia at Akragas: space, texts, monuments and art
Gianfranco Adornato