The three parts of Gaul mentioned by Caesar met at Lyon. Agrippa
recognized that Lugdunum's position on the natural highway from northern to south-eastern France made it a natural
communications hub, and he made Lyon the starting point of the principal Roman roads throughout Gaul.
Lyon's XVIIth century city office
The Christians in Lyon were persecuted for their religious views under the reigns of the Roman emperors Marcus
Aurelius and Septimus Severus. The great Christian bishop of Lyon in the 2nd century was the Easterner Irenaeus.
Burgundian refugees from the destruction of Worms by Huns in 437 were resettled by the military commander of the
west, Aëtius, at Lugdunum, which was formally the capital of the new Burgundian kingdom by 461.
In 843, by the Treaty of Verdun, Lyon, with the country beyond the Saône, went to Lothair I.
Fernand Braudel remarked, "Historians of Lyon are not sufficiently aware of the bi-polarity between Paris and Lyon,
which is a constant structure in French development" from the late Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution (Braudel
1984 p. 327).
The fairs in Lyon, the invention of Italian merchants, made it the economic countinghouse of France in
the late 15th century. When international banking moved to Genoa, then Amsterdam, Lyon simply became the banking
center of France; its new Bourse (treasury), built in 1749, still resembled a public bazaar where accounts were
settled in the open air.
During the Renaissance, the city developed with the silk trade, especially with Italy; the
Italian influence on Lyon's architecture can still be seen. Thanks to the silk trade, Lyon became an important
industrial town during the 19th century.
This bridge bears a declaration saying it was destroyed by Germans in WWII, and
rebuilt in hommage to the fallen.
Lyon was a scene of mass violence against Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacres in 1572.
The silk workers of Lyon, known as canuts, staged two major uprisings: in 1831 and 1834. The 1831 uprising saw one
of the first recorded uses of the black flag as an emblem of protest.
Lyon was a centre for the occupying German forces and also a stronghold of resistance during World War II, and the
town is now home to a resistance museum. (See also Klaus Barbie.) The
traboules, or secret passages, through the
houses enabled the local people to escape Gestapo raids.
Lugdunum
Colonia Copia Claudia
Augusta Lugdunum (modern: Lyon) was an important Roman city
in Gaul. The city was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius
Plancus. It served as the capital of the Roman province
Gallia Lugdunensis. For 300 years after its foundation
Lugdunum was the most important city in north-western
Europe. Two emperors, Claudius and Caracalla, were born in
Lugdunum.
The original Roman city was situated west of the confluence
of the Rhône and Saône, on the Fourvière heights. By the
late centuries of the empire much of the population was
located in the Saône River valley at the foot of Fourvière.
Name
The Roman city was
originally founded as Colonia Copia Felix Munatia, a name
invoking prosperity and the blessing of the gods. The city
became increasingly referred to as Lugdunum (and
occasionally Lugudunum) by the end of the first century AD.
The etymology of Lugdunum is not known. It is assumed to be
derived from Gallic Celtic words as that was the predominant
language of the region when conquered by the Romans. While
dunum is a Celtic word for fort or hill, the source of Lug
is uncertain.
The most commonly offered
derivation is from a Celtic god named Lug, whose messenger
was the crow (lugus). Lug was popular in Ireland, but there
is no evidence of his cult or worship in central Gaul,
except for the apparent use of crows as an early symbol of
the city.
An alternative derivation
is that lug refers to the Celtic word for light (a cognate
of Latin lux and English light), with roughly the same
meaning as Clermont (clarus mons). During the Middle Ages,
Lugdunum was transformed to Lyon.
Pre-Roman settlements
and the area before the founding of the city
There is evidence of
Celtic settlements in the area before the Roman city, and of
pre-Celtic habitation as far back as the neolithic era.
Archeological evidence suggests trade with Campania for
ceramics and wine, and use of some Italic-style home
furnishings before the Roman conquest.
Gaul was conquered for
the Romans by Julius Caesar between 58 and 53 BC. His
description, De Bello Gallico, is our principal source of
knowledge of pre-Roman Gaul, but there is no specific
mention of this area.
Founding of the Roman
city
In 43 BC, ten years after
the conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar was assassinated and
civil war erupted.
According to the
historian Dio Cassius, the Roman Senate ordered Munatius
Plancus and Lepidus, governors of central and Transalpine
Gaul respectively, to found a city for a group of Roman
refugees who had been expelled from Vienne (a town about 30
km to the south) by the Aubroges and were encamped at the
confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers.
Dio Cassius says this was
to keep them from joining Marc Antony and bringing their
armies into the developing conflict. Epigraphic evidence
suggests Munatius Plancus was the principal founder of
Lugdunum.
Lugdunum seems to have had a population of several thousand
at the time of its founding. The citizens were
administratively assigned to the Galerian tribe. The
earliest Roman buildings were located on the Fourvière
heights above the Saône river.
Within 50 years Lugdunum increased in size and importance,
becoming the administrative centre of Roman Gaul and
Germany. By the end of the reign of Augustus, Strabo
described Lugdunum as the junction of four major roads:
south to Narbonensis, Massilia and Italy, north to the Rhine
river and Germany, northwest to the Ocean (the English
Channel), and west to Aquitania.
Antoninianus struck under Florianus in Lugdunum mint.
The proximity to the
frontier with Germany made Lugdunum strategically important
for the next four centuries, as a staging ground for further
Roman expansion into Germany, as well as the de facto
capital city and administrative center of the Gallic
provinces.
Its large and
cosmopolitan population made it the commercial and financial
heart of the northwestern provinces as well. The imperial
mint established a branch in 15 BC, during the reign of
Augustus, and produced coinage for the next three centuries
(see picture).
Attention from the
Emperors
In its first century
Lugdunum was many times the object of attention or visits by
the emperors or the imperial family. Agrippa, Drusus,
Tiberius, and Germanicus were among the governor generals
who served in Lugdunum. Augustus is thought to have visited
at least three times between 16 and 8 BC.
Drusus lived in Lugdunum
between 13 and 9 BC. In 10 BC his son Claudius (the future
emperor) was born there. Tiberius stopped in Lugdunum in 4-5
BC, on his way to the Rhine, and again in 21 AD, campaigning
against the Andecavi. Caligula's visit in 39-40 was longer,
stranger, and better documented by Suetonius.
Claudius and Nero also
contributed to the city's importance and growth.
In 12 BC, Drusus completed an administrative census of the
area and dedicated an altar to his stepfather Augustus at
the junction of the two rivers. Perhaps to promote a policy
of conciliation and integration, all the notable men of the
three parts of Gaul were invited.
Caius Julius
Vercondaridubnus, a member of the Aedui tribe, was installed
as the first priest of the new imperial cult sanctuary,
which was subsequently known as the Junction Sanctuary or
the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls.
The altar, with its
distinctive vertical end poles, was engraved with the names
of 60 Gallic tribes, and was featured prominently on coins
from the Lugdunum mint for many years. The "council of the
three Gauls" continued to be held annually for nearly three
centuries, even after Gaul was divided into provinces.
Amphithéâtre des Trois-Gaules, in Lyon
Southeastern Gaul became
increasingly Romanized. By 19 AD at least one temple, and
the first amphitheater in Gaul had been built on the slopes
of the Croix-Rousse hill. In 48 AD the emperor Claudius
asked the Senate to grant the notable men of the three Gauls
the right to accede to the Senate.
His request was granted
and an engraved bronze plaque of the speech (the Claudian
Tables) was erected in Lugdunum. Today the pieces of the
huge plaque are the pride of the Gallo-Roman Museum in Lyon.
Suetonius reported Caligula's visit to Lugdunum in 39-40 AD
at the beginning of his third consulate as characteristic of
his reign. Spectacles were staged at the amphitheater to
honor and entertain him and his guest, Ptolemy, king of
Mauretania (whom Caligula later had murdered).
A rhetoric contest was
held in which the losers were required to expunge their work
with their tongues. He auctioned furniture brought from the
palace in Rome, assigning prices and purchasers.
Claudius was born in Lugdunum in 10 BC and lived there for
at least two years. As emperor, he returned in 43 AD en
route to his conquest of Britain and stopped again after its
victorious conclusion in 47. A fountain honoring his victory
has been uncovered.
He continued to take a
supportive interest in the town, making the notables of the
town eligible to serve in the Roman Senate, as described
above.
During Claudius' reign, the city's strategic importance was
enhanced by the bridging of the Rhône river. Its depth and
swampy valley had been an obstacle to travel and
communication to the east.
The new route, termed the
compendium, shortened the route south to Vienne and made the
roads from Lugdunum to Italy and Germany more direct. By the
end of his reign, the city's official name had become
Colonia Copia Claudia Augusta Lugudunenisium, abbreviated
CCC AVG LVG.
Nero also took an interest in the city. Citizens of Lugdunum
contributed four million sesterces to the recovery after the
Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. In reciprocal appreciation,
Nero contributed the same amount to the rebuilding of
Lugdunum after a similarly devastating fire a few years
later.
Although the
destructiveness of the fire is described in a letter from
Seneca to Lucilius, archeologists have not been able to
uncover a confirmatory layer of ash.
The Lyonnais admiration of Nero was not universally shared;
tyranny, extravagance, and negligence fostered resentment,
and coups were planned. In March of 68 AD, a Romanized
Aquitainian named Caius Julius Vindex, who was governor of
Gallia Lugdunensis led an uprising intended to replace Nero
with Galba, a Roman governor of Spain.
However, the citizens of
Vienne responded more enthusiastically than the Lyonnais,
most of whom remained loyal to Nero. A small force from
Vienne briefly besieged Lugdunum, but withdrew when Vindex
was defeated by the Rhine legions a few weeks later at
Vesontio. Despite the defeat of Vindex, rebellion grew.
Nero committed suicide in
June and Galba was proclaimed emperor. The loyalty of
Lugdunum to Nero was not appreciated by his successor, Galba,
who punished some of Nero's supporters by confiscations of
property.
However, in another turnabout for Lugdunum, Galba's policies
were immediately unpopular and in January, 69 AD, the Rhine
legions quickly threw their support to Vitellius as emperor.
They arrived at friendly Lugdunum, where they were persuaded
by the Lyonnais to punish nearby Vienne.
Vienne quickly laid down
weapons and paid a "ransom" to forestall plundering.
Meanwhile, Vitellius arrived in Lugdunum, where, according
to Tacitus, he formally declared himself Imperator, punished
unreliable soldiers, and celebrated with feasts, and with
games in the amphitheater.
Fortunately for Lugdunum,
the would-be emperor and his army hurried into Italy,
defeated Otho, and was in turn defeated by Vespasian and the
army of the East, bringing the chaos of the Year of the Four
Emperors to an end.
Despite a lack of imperial visits for most of the next
century, Lugdunum prospered, until Septimus Severus and the
Battle of Lugdunum (see below) brought devastation in 197
AD.
Growth and prosperity in
the first centuries of the Empire
In the second century
A.D., Lugdunum prospered and grew to a population of 40 to
50,000 persons. Four aqueducts brought water to the city's
fountains, public baths, and wealthy homes. It continued to
be a provincial capital with additional government functions
and services such as the mint and customs service.
Lugdunum had at least two
banks and became the principal manufacturing center for
pottery, metal working, and weaving in Gaul. Lyonnais terra
cotta pottery and wine were traded throughout Gaul, and many
other items were crafted for export.
The city itself was run by a "senate" of decurions (the ordo
decurionum) and a hierarchy of magistrates: quaestors,
aediles, and duumvirs. The social classes of the time
consisted of the decurions at the top, who could aspire to
Senate status, followed by the knights (equites), and the
Augustales, six of whom were in charge of the municipal
imperial cult.
This latter status was
the highest distinction to which a wealthy freedman could
aspire. Many of the wealthy merchants and craftsmen were
freedmen. Below them were the workmen and slaves.
The Rhône and Saône rivers were navigable, as were most of
the rivers of Gaul, and river traffic was heavy. The
Lyonnais company of boatmen (nautae) was the largest and
"most honored" in Gaul. Archeological evidence suggests the
right bank of the Saône had the largest concentration of
wharves, quays and warehouses.
Lyonnais boatmen
dominated the wine trade from Narbonensis and Italy, as well
as oil from Spain, to the rest of Gaul.
The heavy concentration of trade made Lugdunum one of the
most cosmopolitan cities of Gaul, and inscriptions attest to
a large foreign-born population, especially Italians,
Greeks, and immigrants from the oriental provinces of Asia
Minor and Syria-Palestine.
There is evidence of numerous temples and shrines in
Lugdunum. Traditional Gallic gods like mallet-bearing
Sucellus and the mother goddesses called the Matres
(depicted with cornucopiae) continued to be worshiped
somewhat syncretistically along with the Roman gods.
Additional religious
cults came with the oriental immigrants, who brought the
eastern mystery religions to the Rhône valley. A major
shrine of the Phrygian goddess Cybele was built in nearby
Vienne, and she also seems to have found special favor in
Lugdunum in the late first century and second century.
Christianity and the
first martyrs
The cosmopolitan
hospitality to eastern religions may have allowed the first
attested Christian community in Gaul to be established in
Lugdunum in the second century, led by a bishop with the
eastern name of Pothinus. In 177 it also became the first in
Gaul to suffer persecution and martyrdom.
The event was described in a letter from the Christians in
Lugdunum to counterparts in Asia, later retrieved and
preserved by Eusebius. There is no record of a cause or a
triggering event but mob violence against the Christians in
the streets culminated in a public interrogation in the
forum by the tribune and town magistrates.
The Christians publicly
confessed their faith and were imprisoned until the arrival
of Legate of Lugdonensis, who gave his authority to the
persecution. About 40 of the Christians were martyred -
dying in prison, beheaded, or killed by beasts in the arena
as a public spectacle.
Among the latter were
Bishop Pothinus, Blandina, Doctor Attalus, Ponticus, and the
deacon Sanctus of Vienne. Their ashes were thrown into the
Rhône.
Nevertheless, the Christian community either survived or was
reconstituted, and under Bishop Irenaeus it continued to
grow in size and influence.
The Battle of Lugdunum
The second century ended
with another struggle for imperial succession. The emperor
Pertinax was murdered in 193, and four generals again
"contended for the purple". Two of the rivals, Clodius
Albinus and Septimus Severus, initially formed a political
alliance. Albinus was a former legate of Britannia and
commanded legions in Britain and Gaul.
Septimus Severus
commanded the Pannonian legions, and led them successfully
against Didius Julianus near Rome in 193, and defeated
Pescennius Niger in 194. Severus consolidated his power in
Rome and broke his alliance with Albinus. The Senate
supported Severus and declared Albinus a public enemy.
Clodius Albinus had settled with his army near Lugdunum
early in 195. There, he had himself proclaimed Augustus and
made plans to counter Severus. Under his control, the
Lugdunum mint issued coins celebrating his "clemency", as
well as one dedicated to the "Genius of Lugdunum."
He was joined by an army
under Lucius Novius Rufus, the governor of Hispania
Tarraconensis. They successfully attacked the German troops
of Virius Lupus but were unable to deter them from
supporting Severus.
Severus brought his army from Italy and Germany toward the
end of 196. The armies fought an initial, inconclusive
engagement at Tinurtium (Tournus), about 60 km up the Saône
from Lugdunum. Albinus retreated with his forces toward
Lugdunum.
On the 19th of February, 197, Severus again attacked Clodius
Albinus to the northwest of the city. Albinus' army was
defeated in the bloody and decisive Battle of Lugdunum. Dio
Cassius described 300,000 men involved in the battle:
although this was one of the largest battles involving Roman
armies known, this number is assumed to be an exaggeration.
Albinus committed suicide
in a house near the Rhône; his head was sent to Rome as a
warning to his supporters. His defeated cohorts were
dissolved and the victorious legions punished those in
Lugdunum who had supported Albinus, by confiscation,
banishment, or execution. The city was plundered or at least
severely damaged by the battle. Legio I Minervia remained
camped in Lugdunum from 198 to 211.
Decline of Lugdunum and
the Empire
Historical and
archeological evidence indicates that Lugdunum never fully
recovered from the devastation of this battle. A major
reorganization of imperial administration begun at the end
of the third century during the reign of Diocletian and
completed a few decades later by Constantine further reduced
the importance of Lugdunum.
This reorganization
standardized size and status of provinces, splitting many of
the larger. The new provinces were grouped in larger
administrative districts. Lugdunum became the capital of a
much smaller region containing only two cities besides
Lugdunum: Autun and Langres.
The new governor bore the
title of consularis. The mint was retained at Lugdunum, as
was an administrative tax office and a state-run wool
clothing factory.
Lugdunum was no longer the chief city and administrative
capital of the Gaul. Although the city continued, there
seems to have been a population shift from the Fourviere
heights where the original Roman city was situated to the
river valley below. Other evidence suggests other cities
surpassed Lugdunum as trading centers.
Though the western Empire persisted another century and a
half, the border regions extending along the Rhine River in
Germany to the Danube River in Dacia became far more
important from military and strategic standpoint.
Cities like Augusta
Treverorum (Trier) eclipsed Lugdunum in importance. The
status of the western provinces declined further when
Constantine founded Constantinople in the late 320s and it
became the principal city of the Empire.
As the western Empire distintegrated in the fifth century
AD, Lugdunum became the principal city of the Burgundian
kingdom.
Credits
: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia article
"Lyon".
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