8. After this account of the constitution of Syracuse, we may proceed to notice those of GELA, and its colony AGRIGENTUM; as these cities, though deriving their origin from Rhodes, perhaps took Syracuse for their model in the formation of their government. In both states the noble and wealthy first held the ruling power; which was afterwards for a long time possessed by tyrants.(744) Agrigentum, after the overthrow of Thrasydæus in 473 B.C., received a democratic constitution:(745) we know, however, that at that time an assembly of a thousand, appointed for three years, governed the state. This assembly was suppressed by Empedocles the philosopher;(746) who obtained so large a share of popular favour that he was even offered the office of king.(747) The assembly of a thousand also occurs in Rhegium and Croton, in speaking of which city we will again mention this subject. Further than this all information fails us. Scipio established anew the senate of Agrigentum, and ordered that the number of the new colonists of Manlius should never exceed that of the ancient citizens.(748) The same senate, in an inscription of the Roman time,(749) is called σύγκλητος, συνέδριον, and βουλὴ, and appears to have consisted of 110 members; the day of meeting is stated: it appears that the senate then alternated every two months;(750) the decree of the senate is referred to the popular assembly (ἁλία); over which a προάγορος presided(751) (which was also the name of the supreme magistrate at Catana in the time of Cicero);(752) the Hyllean tribe has the precedency on the day of this assembly. A hierothytes gives his name to the year, corresponding to the amphipolus at Syracuse; in whose place a hierapolus(753) is mentioned in a similar decree of Gela,(754) together with whom a κατενιαύσιος, an annual magistrate (perhaps archon), is mentioned. In this state the senate (βουλὴ) appears to have been changed every half year,(755) their decrees being also confirmed by the assembly (ἁλία);(756) the assembly is led by a προστάτης, the same magistrate whom we have already met with in nearly all the democratic states of the Dorians, in Argos, Corcyra, and Syracuse.(757)