Akragas

Established in the 6th century BCE by Greek colonists from Gela, Akragas sits on a plateau near the Hypsas and Akragas rivers. They initially lived under a series of tyrants. One of their most brutal tyrants, Phalaris, is famous for torturing his enemies to death by placing them within a hollow bronze bull statue and roasting them. He was eventually overthrown and fed to his own bull, and the series of tyrants rising and being overthrown continues until around 472 BCE, when the last tyrant Thrasydaeus reigned. Already having been thrown out of Himera for violent and arbitrary rule, he fared no better in Akragas, where a revolt established a democracy.