LUGDUNUM
(Lyon) Rhône, France.
Federal capital of the Tres Galliae (Lugdunensis, Aquitania,
Belgica), at the confluence of the Saône and the Rhône.
When Gallic independence came to an end there were
two Celtic settlements: an oppidum on the morainal hill
of Fourvière (on the right bank of the Arar, mod.
Saône) that grew up around the sanctuary of Lug, the
Gallic god of light(?); and a village in the plain at Condate, between the Rhône and the Saône (
Strab. 4.186).
A Roman colony was founded in 43 B.C. (Tac.
Hist.
1.65.2). In 12 B.C. it became the seat of the provincial
concilium of the 60 Gallic civitates and the federal center of the imperial cult. Seneca (
Ep. 91) calls it “maxima et ornamentum trium provinciarum.” After a fire
in A.D. 65 and the disorders of 68-69, the colony flourished again, especially under Hadrian. Partly destroyed
in 197 during the war between Septimius Severus and
Clodius Albinus, it declined, to the benefit of Trêves.
The colony had been extremely important economically
because it was the center of Agrippa's road system, and
because of the commercial activity on the two rivers.
Oriental cults took root there in the 1st c., followed by
Christianity in the 1st-2d c. In 470 the Burgundians occupied the town and in 725 it was plundered by the Saracens.
A large number of monuments have been located and
preserved, particularly on the Fourvière hill. Vienne (in
Gallia Narbonensis) and Lyon are the only cities in
Gaul that possess two theaters: a large theater and an
odeum. The theater, the oldest in Gaul, was located in
1914 and excavated 1933-50. It was built under Augustus
in 16-14 B.C. with stones imported from Glanum; it was
90 m in diameter, had two maeniana, and could accommodate 4500 spectators. Under Hadrian the addition of
a third maenianum (108.5 m in diameter), increased its
capacity to 10,700. The stage was rebuilt and embellished
with columns and statues, and a pit was provided to
receive the curtain (a model of the mechanism is in the
museum). The cavea, against the hill and facing E, is
supported by two galleries of 25 arches and by concentric or radiating walls. A balustrade of green cipollino
marble separates the cavea from the orchestra; the latter
is 25.5 m in diameter and has four rows of low tiers
with a polychrome floor paved with green cipollino, pink
breccia, and gray granite in front of them. Two great
lateral corridors, vaulted and paved, link the orchestra to
the outside. At the rear of the stage (56.5 x 6.25 m) three
semicircular exedras took the place of the customary
doorways.
Near the theater, on the other side of a square, is the
odeum. Used for music and recitations, it was partly
roofed, hence the wall, 6.45 m thick, surrounding the
cavea. The semicircle (73 m diam.) includes two maeniana, seating 3000. Built against the same hill and supported by vaults in the same manner as the theater, the
cavea also faces E, but around the orchestra there are
just two low tiers, faced with white marble. Remains of
the stage area include the front wall of the pulpitum; the
pit into which the curtain was lowered, which was covered with 11 slabs with a square hole cut through them;
the hyposcaenium (3.85 m wide) and the base of the
scaenae frons which still rises ca. 7 m from the bottom
of the facade. A street encircled the upper section of the
cavea; entrance to the theater from this side was by five
monumental doors and in the lower section by two passageways that still have their white marble floors and
stucco-faced walls on either side. Under the street at the
upper level is a large vaulted sewer, the wooden lining
of which is amazingly well preserved. Elegantly luxurious, with its orchestra paved with 11 different materials
including polychrome marbles, its carved balustrade, its
pulpitum of white marble decorated with vines and cherubs gathering grapes, and its outer two-story portico built
against the scaena wall, this little theater dates from the
time of Hadrian.
Lugdunum had a circus, as we know only from a number of inscriptions and a mosaic of a chariot race; according to an 18th c. drawing it must have been in the Trion
district.
The federal amphitheater, however, has been partly
excavated on the Croix-Rousse hillside. Built in A.D. 19
under Tiberius by C. Julius Rufus, a priest of Rome and
Augustus and a native of Saintes, the amphitheater had
only one maenianum at that time; the seats were reserved
for the delegates of the Gallic tribes and marked with
their names. Entrance was by stairways leading from the
upper level to the lower tiers, which held the spectators'
seats. The cavea was ringed with a continuous outer wall.
The arena was leveled out of the rock and the podium
built partly on the ground, partly on an annular vault.
This vault, half-circular in plan, is interrupted at the
doors and is built right on the ground, a design that occurs only in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, never
in an amphitheater of the Republican period. In its original form, this building was closely linked with an Ara
Romae et Augusti and had an essentially federal and
religious purpose. It was enlarged under Hadrian and
underwent important changes. Great radiating arches
were built to support new tiers of seats: the quarry-stone
piers of these arches have leveling courses of double
rows of brick (at Lyon, an indication of Hadrianic
work). At that time the structure measured 135 x 115.5
m and the arena 59 x 39.5 m. It was here that the martyrs of 117 met their deaths, notably Bishop Pothinus,
Attalus, Maturus, and Blandina.
Close to the amphitheater was the Altar of the Imperial Cult (Ara Romae et Augusti), inaugurated in 12 B.C.
by Drusus. It is known from a brief description by Strabo
(
4.3.1) and from its representation on the reverse of
coins minted in Lugdunum from 12 B.C. on. The altar
stood on a pedestal bearing the inscription ROM·ET·AVG·
decorated in front with a crown of oak leaves flanked by
two laurels and tripods topped by crowns. Framing the
altar were two columns, each supporting a Victory 3.5 m
high. Originally 10.5 m high and made of Egyptian granite from Syene, these columns now stand (sawn in half)
in the church of Saint-Martin d'Ainay, where they have
supported the baldacchino since the 11th c. The Victory
statues have disappeared, but a small model in bronze was
found in 1886 in the Saône (now in the Fourvière museum). An element from the crowns that the figures held
aloft in their right hands was discovered in 1961: it is a
half-crown 0.46 m in diameter, consisting of 10 rows of
triple spear-shaped leaves in gilded bronze. This form of
the altar represents a Hadrianic embellishment.
Lugdunum had two forums. On the hill is the Augustan forum known as Forum Vetus (whence the modern
name Fourvière). Built on the flattened summit, it had
powerful subfoundations, remains of which are still
standing. According to calculations, as yet unconfirmed,
it measured 140 x 61.5 m. Under Hadrian this forum
was restored and enlarged, along with its two temples:
a colossal temple with columns 20 m high (the Capitolium?) and what was probably the municipal Temple
of Augustus. Several inscriptions, by Augustan seviri or
relating to the imperial municipal cult, suggest this identification. This temple stood on an esplanade supported
by a terraced wall (known today as the Mur Cléberg,
from the name of the street where it was found); 48 m
long and 15 m high, the wall is braced by strong buttresses of quarry stones with double layers of brick. A
little later, under Antoninus Pius, the Forum Novum,
was built on the nearby plateau called La Sarra; excavated since 1957, it measures 120 x 90 m. Architectural
remains, the fragment of an inscription, an ex-voto to
Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and the head of a statue of
a god make it appear certain that a colossal Temple of
Jupiter stood in the middle of the forum.
Behind the great theater and overlooking it, on the
other side of the street that runs around the cavea, was
a large Temple of Cybele, whose E facade, over 53 m
wide, is still standing. Its main elements were located
in 1965: a surrounding wall (82.88 x 50.32 m); a
monumental porch (12 x 5 m) in the middle of the W
facade, reached by a great stairway; and on the axis
of the building, in front of the cella in the middle of the
E facade, the base of the altar. From the size and the
plan of this complex, which covers 4200 sq. m, we may
identify this monument as the Campus Matris Deum
and compare it to that at Ostia. A ceramic medallion
showing Cybele seated on her lion, and four taurobolium
altars plus two fragments had already been found at
Lugdunum, two of them in this archaeological zone:
the earliest, dated December 160, was offered for the
welfare of Antoninus and his sons.
Other temples have been located, if not excavated:
a Temple of Mercury on the La Sarra plateau (from the
time of Claudius), a Temple of the Mother Goddesses
on the Montée Saint-Barthelemy on the Fourvière
plateau, a Temple of Diana or of the Spirit of the Saône
beside that river, a Temple of Mars, and one dedicated
to the Matres Augustae in the Choulans quarter.
A bronze plaque excavated in 1524 (now in the Fourvière museum), contains part of a speech given by Claudius before the Senate in A.D. 47 or 48. In it the emperor
supported the request of the leaders of the Tres Galliae
for eligibility to Roman magistracies and therefore access
to the Senate.
The first colony was established by L. Munatius Plancus S of Fourvière around a decumanus (today the Rue
Clébert) rediscovered between 1942 and 1965—a fine
granite-paved street 312 m long and 8.88 m wide—and
a cardo, also paved with granite and 7.7 m wide, part
of which has been excavated. The first city grew up in
the Les Minimes quarter around these axes; it was protected by a rampart, some remains of which have been
identified. Excavations in front of the theater have revealed an open space containing a nearly square building (57 x 55 m); it was razed in the Augustan era
(praetorium of Plancus?).
In the 1st and 2d c. A.D. the city developed at three
points: the first and most important was on the B flank
of the Fourvière hill and the adjacent La Sarra plateau.
Some houses have been located or excavated here in a
number of places: under the Temple of Kybele and on
the plateau, where a residential quarter was built in the
2d c. In 1913-14 the villa of S. Egnatius Paulus, also
known as the Villa of the Mosaics, was discovered. It
is remarkable both for its mosaic floors and for its plan:
a narrow corridor runs between two shops to a great
hall, 14 x 12 m (a kind of atrium), inlaid with mosaics.
The hall opens directly on a peristyle 22 m square,
on the N side of which are seven rooms; the largest one
(14 x 7.3 m), in the middle, is decorated with frescos
and a polychrome geometric mosaic in 91 panels. Also
noteworthy, on the N slope of the Fourvière hill toward
the Saône, in the area called Clos de la Solitude or
Cbs des Maristes, is a room (6.25 x S m) known as the
Hall of the Gladiators after graffiti found on the wall
frescos. In 1965-67 another housing section came to light
in the same area; dating from the 2d c., it is remarkable
chiefly for a house with well-preserved frescos called
the House of the Sea-Horses, and a nymphaeum that
probably belongs to a large estate.
The second urban nucleus is on both banks of the
Saône, between the river and the amphitheater which
occupies the W flank of the Croix-Rousse hill, and also
at the foot of the Fourvière hill. In this area were villas
and baths and, at the foot of the cliff, the old settlement
of Condate. Here, in 1965-66, an industrial area was
found in the Quai de Serin with the workshops and
ovens of potters, bronze-founders, and glassmakers
built side by side for over 500 m. The potters' kilns are
square (Gallo-Roman kilns hitherto located have been
round or oval), and recall those of Arezzo; many of the
names of the Lugdunum potters are also found at Arezzo.
Their products, which date from the beginning of our
era, were exported everywhere. Lugdunum at that time
was clearly an essential link between the potteries of
N Italy, particularly those of Arezzo, and the workshops
of S Gaul (Montans, La Graufesenque) and of the
Massif Central (Lezoux). In the 2d c., Lyon, like Vienne, probably specialized in the manufacture of vases
with appliquéd medallions.
The third urban nucleus is in the Island of the Canabae (now the Ainay quarter and Place Bellecour),
which owed its name either to the hutments and military
depots of the time of the Gallic Wars or to the storehouses and depots that filled the area in the Roman period. The island was crossed from W to E by a road
that bounded, on the S, a section full of wealthy villas
which have yielded a large number of mosaics, among
them the circus mosaic. On the N side of the road lay a
quarter of inns, shops, and storehouses, where many
amphorae have been found, made by potters working on
the edge of the river. Opposite this section and farther S,
on the W bank of the Rhône, another very populous
quarter grew up in the Choulans district, which lies at
the head of the Rhône waterway at the point where the
Narbonne road rejoined the river. Here was the first
port of the Rhocirc;ne merchants and, close by, the docks
which have yielded layers of dolia, rivaling those of
Marseille. This first port seems to have been abandoned
in Hadrian's reign and moved about 1 km upstream,
around Saint-Georges, where it was within closer reach
of the commercial centers of the Canabae. The docks
were moved in the same way.
The urban development of Lugdunum was intimately
connected with the growth of its water supply. Two
aqueducts were built under Augustus, that of Yzeron
(also called Craponne) which fed the hill town of Fourvière, and that of Mont-d'Or which supplied the riverside sections. A third, La Brévenne, built under Claudius,
brought water into the low-lying quarter of Les Minimes; remains of it can still be seen, especially of the
25 arches of the lower tier, some of them 20 m high.
A fourth, the aqueduct of the Gier, was built under Hadrian to carry water from Mont Pilat, 25 km away, to
the La Sarra plateau. Its piers and arcades have been
preserved in many places, as have several large reservoirs linked by siphons: the most impressive remains
are at Chaponost and Beaunant, and at Lyon itself at
the Saint-Irénée Fort.
On the outskirts of the city were several necropoleis,
where almost 550 epitaphs have been found. The oldest,
possibly pre-Roman, is in the old Saint-Jean quarter,
near the Marseille road; a fine bronze oinochoe is one
of the most notable finds. The earliest necropolis from
the Roman period was developed under Augustus beside the Aquitanian road in the upper city; it extended
into the Trion valley over an area 400 m wide and almost 1 km long. Here tombs covered with tiles, blocks
of stone topped by cremation urns, sarcophagi, and
monumental mausoleums lay side by side. Another
necropolis bordered the road that ran NW from Trion,
towards Vaise. A third was at Saint-Clair on the banks
of the Rhône; here were buried those killed in the amphitheater. Towards the NE the Rhine road was also
edged with tombs, as was the road to Italy to the E, in
the territory of the Allobroges, where the mausoleum of
the Acceptii with its Dionysiac sarcophagus was found.
To the S, in the Choulans section, the Narbonne road
crossed another large necropolis, which remained in
use in the Merovingian era. The stelai from this cemetery often show an ascia with an engraved inscription
ending with the words ET SVB ASCIA DEDICAVIT; the
meaning of this symbol is still much disputed.
Places of Christian worship soon sprang up in these
necropoleis. It is not known where the members of the
first community met, but we know that the first Christian cemetery was on the Saint-Irénée hill, a small rise
at the W end of the Trion valley. There St. Irénée was
buried together with the martyrs Epipodus and Alexander, on the site of a pagan funerary basilica erected to
the memory of an infant whose epitaph has been preserved. The saints' tomb was probably a simple memoria,
remodeled by Bishop Patiens into a vaulted, half-sunken
chamber. Later a basilica was raised over it.
Near the Saint-Irénée hill was the Basilica of the
Maccabees (Septem fratrum Macchabaeorum et martyrum gloriosissimorum), consecrated to Bishop Justus,
who died in 390 and was buried in the crypt. This church
has disappeared, but Sidonius Apollinaris (
Epist. 5.17)
describes it as large and surrounded with cryptoportici;
beside it was a receptorium. In the 4th c. a number of
churches stood on the banks of the Saône, at the foot
of the Fourvière hill, including one embellished by
Bishop Patiens ca. 470 which probably became the
episcopal church, consecrated to St. John. According
to Sidonius Apollinaris (
Epist. 3.18), it faced E, with
two porches, one with three arcades of Aquitaine marble
and a second in line with the first, leading to an atrium
and a nave with many marble columns. Excavations in
1935 m the substructure of the present Cathedral of
Saint-Jean revealed the semicircular apse of the 5th c.
building and a few remains of the mosaic floor. On the
right bank of the Saône were three more churches, and
two on the left bank. Finally, the Saint-Laurent church
(discovered 1947) was built on the right bank, at Choulans, on the edge of the Narbonne road. Probably built
in the 5th c. on the plan of the Syrian churches, enlarged in the 6th and used most frequently in the mid
7th c., the church and the land around it served as a
necropolis in the Merovingian era; 82 sarcophagi have
been found, some with inscriptions from the mid 6th
to the mid 7th c.
The museum (now under construction on the Fourvière hill near the theater) has, besides the finds already
mentioned, several statues. These include a great imperial statue, two draped statues of women, and a torso
of Apollo. There are portraits, among them Hadrian and
the prefect of the praetorium, Timesitheus; several fine
bas-reliefs, particularly those from the Altar of the
Confluence, the theater, and the odeum; and some sarcophagi, two of them Dionysiac. Among the toreutic
and gold- and silver-plate exhibits are some bronze statuettes,
oinochoai, appliquéd ornaments, and a silver goblet
with religious decoration (Mercury, Cernunnos, and
various symbols). The pottery is abundant and varied:
Lyon pottery of the Arezzo type, Aco vases, pottery in
relief from La Graufesenque and Lezoux, appliquéd
medallions (with mythological, religious, historical, and
erotic subjects). Over 100 mosaic floors have been excavated in the Lyon region; they are among the most
beautiful in Gaul, and remarkable for their documentary value (the circus mosaic), their rich decoration,
and the variety and originality of their geometric motifs.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. G. de Montauzan, “Les fouilles de
Fourvière,”
Ann. Univ. Lyon 25, 28, 30 (1912-15);
id., “Les fouilles archéologiques de Fourvière à Lyon
depuis la guerre,”
Bull. Ass. G. Budé; (July 1931) 11-24;
P. Wuilleumier,
Fouilles a Fourvière à Lyon, Gallia
Suppl. 4 (1951)
MPI; id., Lyon, métropole des Gaules
(1953)
MPI; A. Audin,
Essai sur la topographie de Lugdunum (1958)
MP; id.,
Lyon, miroir de Rome dans les
Gaules (1965)
PI; id. and M. Leglay, “Découvertes archéologiques recentes à Lugdunum, métropole des
Gaules,”
BAntFr (1966) 95-109; A. Bruhl & M. Leglay, “Informations,”
Gallia (1962-73).
Monuments: C. G. de Montauzan,
Les aqueducs antiques de Lyon (1908)
MPI; P. Wuilleumier, “Etudes
d'archéologie romaine,”
Annales Ecole Htes. Etudes de
Gand 1 (1937) 127ff; id. & A. Audin,
Les médaillons
d'applique gallo-romains de Ia valée du Rhône (1952)
I;
A. Ducaroy & A. Audin, “Le rideau de scène du théâtre
de Lyon,”
Gallia 18 (1960) 57-82; A. Audin & P. Quoniam, “Victoires et colonnes de l'autel federal des Trois-Gaules; données nouvelles,”
Gallia 20 (1962) 103-16;
J. Guey & A. Audin, “L'amphithéâtre des Trois-Gaules
à Lyon,”
Gallia 20 (1962) 117-45; 21 (1963) 125-53;
22 (1964) 37-61; H. Stern,
Recueil général des mosaïques
de la Gaule II,
Lyonnaise 1,
Lyon (1967)
MPI; A. Audin
& M. Leglay, “L'amphithéâtre des Trois-Gaules à Lyon,”
Gallia 28 (1970) 67ff; A. Audin, “L'hemicycle de
l'Odéon de Lyon,”
Hommage à F. Benoît IV (1972) 110.
Churches: A. Coville,
Recherches sur l'histoire de Lyon du Ve s. au IXe s. (1928); W. Seston & C. Perrat,
“Une basilique funéraire païenne à Lyon,”
REA 49
(1947) 139-59; P. Wuilleumier et al., “L'église et la
nécropole Saint-Laurent,”
Inst. Et. Rhod., Mémoires et
Documents 4 (1949).
M. LEGLAY
