Lugdunum

Lugdunum is the Latin name (of origin Celtique) of the current town of Lyon, officially founded in 43 av. J. - C., capital of the Gaulle S starting from 27 av. J. - C., under the impulse of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, general and son-in-law of Auguste. The site was however occupied good before the arrival of the Romains. Those establish the city at the top of the hill of Fourvière, but the city largely will overflow of the initial site and will occupy the current peninsula (whose many authors imagined that it was about an island, the island of Canabae) and the slopes of the hill of theRusset-red one.

Origin of the name

Name Lugdunum would come from the name of Lug, god supreme of the Celtic Mythologie, to which a furnace bridge would have been devoted on the current hill of Fourvière, and of the word dun (“fortress”, “hill”). One advances also the term lukos which means “the corbel”, animal indicator board of the presence of Lug, in mythology. Another theory teaches us that the word lug could have the same direction as the Latin word lux (light). The name of the city would mean “enlightened Hill thus”. Two interpretations are not very distant besides, Lug being a solar divinity and light.

Other cities bore the name of Lugdunum , like Laon in the Aisne, Saint-Bertrand-with-Comminges ( Lugdunum Convenarum ) in the Haute-Garonne, Loudun in the Vienna or Leyde with the Netherlands.

A legendary foundation

Following the example Rome founded by Romulus and Rémus, Lugdunum owes its foundation with two legendary Celtic characters, the druid Momoros and the king Atepomaros:

The treaty on the rivers " of fluviis " allotted to Plutarque reports the creation of Lyon under mythological features:

History

The occupation pre-Roman

Neolithic era and Bronze Age

The human presence on the ancient site is attested at various periods without one being able to speak about continuity:

Mesolithic (: - 12000): reinforcements of arrows in Flints discovered (with the foot of the district of Duchère, Lyon 9th arr.).
Neolithic old (: - 5500 with: - 4900): holes of posts, a rock crystal flints and point (on the street Mouillard, Lyon 9th arr.).
Neolithic means (: - 4800 with: - 3500): the culture of Chassey-Cortaillod-Lagozza develops (flat Vaise, Lyon 9th arr.)
Neolithic Burgundian means (: - 4000 with: - 3000): an agricultural colony on the site of the old factory Rhodiacéta (Saint-Pierre district, Lyon 9th arr.).
Neolithic final (: - 3500 with: - 2500): holes of posts, vases and earthenware jars with grains, bones of ox, cat and rabbit (street Gorges with Wolf, Lyon 9th arr.).
Campaniform (: - 2500 with: - 2100): potteries in form of bell (of the Latin campana : bell)
Bronze Age (: - 2200 with: - 800): mainly in the plain and on the slopes of Vaise: unequal occupation in accordance with the impoverishment regular of the grounds: culinary hearths (towards: - 2000 with: - 1500 (street Mouillard, Lyon 9th arr.), habitat on the site of Cross-Russet-red), a Burial with incineration in ballot box (street Gorges with Wolf, Lyon 9th arr.), deposit of objects out of bronze discovered with Vernaison.

The first Age of iron

Many traces of habitat were discovered in the district of Vaise (street Marietton, street of the Memory, district of Throat of Wolf, street of Dr. Horand): fragments of balsamaire rhodien out of blue glass, trace of posts, houses of wood and cob, domestic hearths, food remainders, cereal palisades, tombs, cultures, abundant ceramics (in particular of the Etruscan wine amphoras of origin and Marseillaise), objects out of iron (sword). These traces attest the existence of a relay of wine trade between the Mediterranean coastline and north (6th century). In the absence of more worked out artefacts, one cannot at this stage speech of village or city.

Second Age of iron

In 1989, the analysis of Christian Goudineau refutes the idea, not supported by the excavations, of an important occupation pre-Roman although the discoveries on the site of the Verbe Incarnated and under the hospital Holy-Cross with Fourvière have to a long time let think that they were vestiges of Roman military camps.

Fourvière

But these analyzes were reinterpreted by recent archeology and the datings were moved back. What one took for contemporary traces of the foundation of the Roman colony is in fact older of around fifty or a hundred years: the discovered ditches, broad several meters and length of several hundred meters, delimit in fact of vast comprising enclosures of very many animal bones and shards of Amphore S with Vin coming from Italy. Without calling into question the absence of a permanent occupation, one cannot neglect the interpretation of the presence of these tens of thousands of amphoras and bones. One cannot conclude with a permanent habitat in the quasi-absence from objects related to the daily life.

These vestiges give life to the immense Gallic banquets described in the texts (Phylarque, Histoires , quoted by Athénée IV, 34) interpreted a long time like imaginary. Within sight of the remainders and discovered ditches with Fourvière, one can imagine the presence of several thousands of guests in these provisional enclosures. The multiplicity of the phenomenon in the perimeter of Fourvière is not alleviating. The identical sites excavated in Gaulle specify that they are large federal sanctuaries or the future capitals of Gallic tribes.

Saint-Vincent district

The excavations carried out in three points of the zone attests an occupation during the period known as of Halstatt: charcoal traces, domestic ceramics fragments. Beginning of at the 4th century, one finds a workshop of potter, circular furnaces, a surface of storage, ceramics campaniennes.

Rue du Souvenir

Although officially the foundation of the city is gone back to 43 av. J. - C., the site of the street of the Memory attests the existence of a Emporium . Located at the border of the Roman world (the Roman city of Vienna is with less than 30 km in the south), the emporium made the bridge between the Roman and Gallic cultures and was also used as transhipment port (the bottleneck of the the Saone in Pierre-Scize prohibited navigation). The indigenous ceramics found at the time of the excavations translates the intensity of the trade between Ségusiaves and Éduens, the latter being themselves “friendly” of the Romains as of.

Conclusions

Archeology corroborates toponymy: Lugdunum is well the hill or the fortress (dunum) dedicated to the god Lug. historical Pun, théonyme and toponym returns, in Latin as in Celte, with the same root: the light. Lug is identified with Mercure which one finds, without one being able to speak about chance, two sanctuaries on the site even of Fourvière in Saint-Just and in the field of the Incarnated Verb. The historical slip appears easy, but it would be advisable to imagine the hill of Fourvière as a great votive center whose term gets along from now on like a dedication with the Lug god.

The historical foundation in 43 av. J. - C. is only one stage in the history of the city. The excavations undertaken since 1990 attest a continuous human presence as of sixth century BC

The foundation of the city

Consecutively to the conquest of Gaulle, a plan of construction of cities defined by César aims to the stabilization and the pacification of the lately conquered territories. Thus would have been based, on a north-eastern south-western axis, the towns of Lugdunum (Lyon), Nyon (Noviodunum in Suisse) and Augusta Raurica (Augst, close to Basle, in Switzerland). Christian Goudineau refutes this idea. For him, the occupation of the top of the high city by the refugees Viennese is former to the foundation. Munatius Plancus would have done nothing but confirm their installation in their conferring various advantages of which the Roman law.

The facts, shortly after the assassination of Jules César in -44, its generals enter in rebellion against the Roman Sénat. According to the historian Dion Cassius, the Sénat orders to two among them, Lépide and Munatius Plancus, governors of the Gaulle cisalpine, to go to base a colony on the top of the hill of Fourvière ( Forum Vetus , the old man forum) for a group of refugees, driven out Roman city of Vienna by the Allobroges. Dion Cassius adds that it was a question for the Senate of preventing the troops of the two governors from joining those of Marc Antoine. The first newcomers must be compared with those which one observes on a relief with Glanum showing legionaries out of weapons.

The epitaph of the tomb of Munatius Plancus suggests that he is the single founder of the city. A later source, Eusèbe de Césarée, allots also the foundation to Munatius Plancus, in year 728 of Rome, this date not being retained by the historians.

Plancus founds the city under the name of Colonia Copia Felix Munatia Lugdunum the 9 or October 10th of the year 43 av. J. - C.. This date is calculated according to the axis of the Decumanus that Amable Audin locates under the current street Cléberg. According to Gabriel Knight, Munatius Plancus would not have made " that to trace the enclosure of the new city by means of a plow drawn by an heifer and a white bull, according to a crowned rite, around a East-West central act (...) ". However, and more probably according to the rite, it delimits the Pomerium , the crowned enclosure of the city by tracing a furrow using a plow.

The first decades of the colony are known little about. The archaeological elements go back only to -30 approximately. Is it necessary for as much affirming the existence of a time between the foundation and the installation? Probably not. The stratigraphic layers of reference for the period -50 to -20 concerning Roman camps which were excavated are posterior with -20 so that the dating for this period is difficult, more still in the absence of ceramics.

The last excavation campaign (1991 - 2001), carried out on the site of the pseudo Sanctuary of Cybèle, informs about the nature of the first establishment: the Decumanus identified by Amable Audin under the current street Cléberg would be in fact the current street Roger Radisson what would call in question the date of foundation of the 9 or October 10th -43. The colony is founded on a plan hippodamic with as bases the future way of Aquitaine (street Roger Radisson). The refugees Viennese that Christian Goudineau does see in the zone ranging between the two rivers (which one knows that it is unstable because of its tender with the hydrological modes of the the Rhone and of the the Saone which butt against its sides) could very well have settled at the top, near to emporium (directed by Italics or Massaliotes?) described above, located in the alluvial plain of Vaise. It is thus not excluded that a camp preceded the colony. The fact that the camp of the refugees is placed at the top of the hill or between the two rivers does not change anything.

The colony of Munatius Plancus is not equipped with wall, at most a ground lifting with ditches and palisades with the image of the Roman camps. The first buildings are made of wood and ground. One knows only small islands of dwellings recognized under the sites of the pseudo Sanctuaire of Cybèle and of Closed Incarnated Verb. Not comprising any building of size, nor forum (at least in the actual position of the excavations in 2007), the colony is of reduced size, at most a quadrilateral of 400 side meters. These dimensions are to be brought closer to those of the contemporary colonies of Nyon (Noviodunum in Suisse) and Augusta Raurica. All the three seem to be intended for the reception of the legions of veterans.

The city seems not to occupy the north-western edge of the plate as the discovery of the workshops of potters of Loyasse and of Sarra attests it. The topography of the site imposes small islands square of small size of approximately 36 meters on side (dimensions to be put in close connection with those found precisely at Nyon) although this phenomenon is rare, it allows a greater flexibility in the installation of this hill the broken relief.

The town of ground and wood leaves the place to buildings with the bases in stone masonry. The rise of the city is fast because of its eminently strategic site.

The name of the city evolves/moves in Colonia Copia Lugdunum to which one will add the cognomina Augusta and Claudia . The reference to Munatius Plancus ( Munatia ) disappears.

The capital of Gaules

In 27 av. J. - C., the general Clutched, son-in-law and minister of Auguste divides the Gaulle. Lugdunum becomes the capital of the Lyons province of Gaulle and the seat of the imperial capacity for the three Gallic provinces (“capital of Gaules”). As of -19, Auguste arranges the urban network which accommodates the four open ways through Gaulle:

the way of Aquitaine merges with the way of the Ségusiaves (street Roger Radisson) and is connected at the end of the Decumanus (angle of current the street Cléberg and Roger Radisson).
the Narbonnaise way connects up in Choulans
the way of the Rhine going down from the high city by the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre rise, crossing the Saone towards Saint Vincent, being next to the Amphithéâtre of the three Gaules, placed under the small valley of the rise of the Carmelite nuns
the way of Italy. The crossing of the Rhone is not defined with exactitude, but the mausoleum in particular found street of the university, make it possible to imagine the Roman way under this street.

Tite-Live comments on " Lyon ordered Gaules, as the acropolis dominates a cité". The privileged role of Lugdunum was reinforced by the installation in 15 av. J. - C. of the Second imperial monetary workshop then by the dedication in the year 12 av. J. - C. of the federal Sanctuaire of the three Gaules, on the slopes of the Cross-Russet-red , where the worship of Rome and of the emperor gather each year the delegates of the Gallic tribes to celebrate. One knows the first sacerdotes (priests) of the federal sanctuary: the Éduen Caius Julius Vercondaridubnus on August 1st -12 then the Cadurque Mr. Lucterius Sencianus and the Santon Caius Julius Rufus

During the 1st century, the city is the subject of multiple attentions on behalf of the emperors. Auguste comes three times between 16 and 8 av. J. - C., Drusus, brother of the emperor Tibère, resides at Lyon between 13 and 9 av. J. - C. Tibère itself stops in Lyon between 4 and 5 av. J. - C. on its projection towards north and again in 21 a. J. - C. with the return of the countryside against the Andécaves.

At the end of the reign of the emperor Auguste, Strabon whose arrival with Lugdunum appears not very probable, describes nevertheless the city:

The key position of Lugdunum, with the confluence of the Arar (the Saone) and of the Rhodanus (the Rhone), makes an important river port of it. It is also a road junction, connected to the south of Gaulle (the Narbonnaise), with the Aquitaine, the Brittany, the Germanie and soon the Italy. This double position puts Lugdunum in contact with the whole of the Empire. Its statute of Roman colony granted by the Senate and the role of capital of Gaules supports the rise of the city.

Lugdunum at the end of the period julio-claudienne

The fire of 65

In 64, the notable ones of Lugdunum are informed of the fire which devastated Rome, and send four million Sesterce S of assistance for the rebuilding. The following year in 65, Lugdunum is victim of a terrible fire. Sénèque indicates: " Enough often one saw cities damaged by the fire, but never so much which there did not remain some vestige of what they were before… After that which would believe that so many palates able to embellish several cities disappeared in one night… Lyon which one had accustomed to show in Gaulle like one of his more beautiful ornaments, is sought today and plus" is not;. In that, A. Steyert, in 1899, indicates that Sénèque uses of figures stylistics and moderates: " Fire was propagated in the low city, extended on the hillsides, but the part more élevée" did not reach; . Néron makes in its turn a gift of four million Sesterce S in Lugdunum for its rebuilding.

Lugdunum and Vienna, quoted rival

At the time of the events of 68, Julius Vindex, legate of the Lyons Gaulle, revolt against Néron and support its rival Galba. The Lyoneses remain faithful to Néron, while their neighbors Viennois take the party of Bent. While Vindex is made beat with Besancon by the army of the Rhine, the Vienneses assemble a forwarding armed against Lugdunum, which manages to resist. The end of Néron and the come to power of Bent mark a pause in this conflict.

Only one pause, because the following year in 69, the political situation is always confused: the army of the Rhine of Vitellius, going against Italy and Othon, passes by Lugdunum. Its inhabitants to be avenged convince Fabius Valens, lieutenant de Vitellius to attack Vienna. Vienna must pay an enormous sum with the army to escape plundering.

The apogee of Lugdunum

Under Flaviens of 69 with 96, then under the Antonins (of 96 with 192) Lugdunum thrives and knows the peace following the example Roman world. Its population is estimated between 50000 and 80000 inhabitants, which does of it one of the more big cities of Gaulle with Narbo Martius (Narbonne).

The study of the epigraphy makes it possible to define the proportion of Greek in Lyon during this period. On a total of 522 epitaphs, one finds 243 names Greek over 1116: from 19% at the beginning of the 1st century, they are 24% in the middle of the 2nd century and 30% at the end of the century. This many population is made up of the slaves and of freed from the notable rich person from the high city. The Tombeau of Turpio reveals the existence of five affanchis of which two bear Greek names. The decline in the proportion of Greek names during the 2nd century is explained by the discredit which strikes a modest or servile origin. The tendency is accentuated during the 3rd century when the Greek names do not represent any more that 18%. Amable Audin explain the phenomenon, not by a reduction of the population of Eastern origin (which constitutes up to 35% of the inhabitants of the district of Tiny, district that it indicates like the administrative heart of the city), but by a Latinization of the names. This phenomenon is also noted among Celts of the borough of Condate (around the amphitheater), but the low number of epitaphs allows a less obvious interpretation. This prosperity is visible by the embellishment of the high city and the many commercial exchanges and artisanal whose traces are numerous. The commercial communities grow rich: boatmen (or Nautes) of the Rhone and of the Saone, wine merchants, Utricular (of the manufacturers of goatskin bottles, or the Nautes using rafts whose floats are goatskin bottles), the artists stucco workers, potters. These communities of merchants or inhabitants have their seat, their council, their dignitaries and very often their cemetery. The last excavation campaigns of the ex- Sanctuaire of Cybèle allot one of the stages of the building to the seat of one of these important communautées, perhaps that of the nautes.

The city is spread out mainly over four particularly delimited zones: the high city (place where was founded the original colony), the Celtic borough of Condate, Canabae and the Right Bank of the Saone below the high city.

The high city

Many historians always imagined the girdled high city of walls. It should however be noted that no archaeological discovery attests its existence. The old forum is located under the current esplanade in front of the Basilique of Fourvière. It is surrounded by buildings of which some are known for us.

the temple capitolin: sheltering the essential religious triad of the traditional Roman religion, the temple capitolin is in theory one of the essential components of any urban foundation. At the beginning of our era the writings of Vitruve on town planning, referring to an old tradition, that of the science of the haruspices, and thus making an echo with Servius, advise to place the sanctuaries of Jupiter, Junon and Minerve with the place more raised, from where one can discover the most walls. This recommendation is respected in Lugdunum: the temple is with the site of current the Basilique of Fourvière. He is known to us by the existence of some drums of columns of a diameter of 2 meters (preserved a long time in a room close to the basilica, they disappear definitively during the second world war), a marble head of Jupiter found in 1899 in a Roman sewer of the rise of Fourvière and a fragment of colossal hand found under the house of the Missions of Syria in 1933, a claw of bronze eagle found in the foundations of a tower of the basilica. Jupiter would have naturally replaced the Celtic god Lug.
the forum is traditionally surrounded of the curia (municipal deliberations) and the basilica (legal deliberations). Although they are not located with exactitude, these two places could be identified by the discovery of many invaluable marbles, in particular on the western frontage of the forum, like in the powerful substructions discovered in 1961 during work assembled Nicolas de Lange.
the imperial palace: it would be located at the north-eastern end of the plate, (in the north of the basilica, near the metal tower of telecommunication) according to the archeologists. Y lived Auguste, Tibère, Caligula, Vitellius, Hadrian then, later, Septime Sévère and Clodius Albinus and was born to with it Claude and Caracalla
the street of Aquitaine (the current street Roger Radisson), directed south-western/north-eastern, takes its departure with the south-western angle of the forum. It cuts the plate and the old urban screen, (in particular the Decumanus under the current street Cléberg) in a 12 meters broad diagonal whose pavement is made up large remarkably assembled blocks of granite. This street imposes an unusual screen on the district of Sarra, in the North-West of the city where is the new forum identified by the excavations of Closed Incarnated Verb. The podium of the temple of Jupiter is discovered. One belongs to the 15 meters high columns, of which the proportions are indicated by the base of a decorated Modénature inscription Vital .
the Decumanus (identified under the street Cléberg), 8.88 meters is broad, 300 meters length. It is bordered on its northern frontage, by a building (a temple?) built on a terrace and, on its southern frontage, of gantries which probably sheltered gravers.
In the south of the Decumanus , the theater sees its capacity passing from 4500 to 10700 places.

Antonin completes the work of its predecessors: towards 160 one associates with the theater a odéon of 3000 places, dedicated to the music.

the circus, probably built out of wood, would be located in the ditch of Trion, only sufficiently flat place to shelter this structure. The proximity of the necropoles reinforces this assumption, because the circus games and death are often dependant in ancient Rome (this proximity is to be put in parallel with the case of the ancient Vienna (Isere), or necropolis and circus are geographically close). A splendid mosaic visible with the Musée of the Graeco-Roman civilization presents the Lyons monument. The spina is surprisingly made of watery basins, which would confirm its proximity with the aqueduct of Gier whose water is necessary to the power supply of the basins. A block is discovered in the district Saint Irenee (1.90x0.75 meters) which because of its dimensions could not come by far. This block and a lost inscription from now on informs us more about this circus: during the 2nd century, 500 places are arranged by the care of the municipal official Sextus Julius Januarius. Destroyed thereafter, these steps are restored under Septime Sévère by the community of the centonaires (ragmen). It is also known that Sextus Ligurius Marinus, questeur and '' to duumvir '', offered circus games to its accession with perpetual pontificate.
the aqueducts: at least three of the four aqueducts serve the city: the Aqueduct of Brévenne, the Aqueduct of Yzeron and the Aqueduct of Gier. This last is longest of the four: in its Lyons part, some arches are still visible at the end of the way of Aquitaine (currently street Roger Radisson, contrary to the forum). The final tank is still visible in the form of two of the four tanks of decantation with the back (western) of the pseudo Sanctuaire of Cybèle. The Aqueduc of the Gold mounts does not reach the high city, Amable Audin leans for a food of the low part of the city although the idea still makes debate.

The Celtic borough of Condate

Primitive core of the Gallic village, this site accommodates two major monuments of the city. One reaches it by a street which goes down from the high city (probably the current rise Saint Barthelemy), then by a ford or a bridge located roughly towards the current footbridge Saint Vincent on the Saone. It is the departure of the way of the Rhine. This way borders an artisanal district on left bank of the Saone upstream of the passage on the river. The way leads to the amphitheater. This one is increased under the emperor Hadrian, the few steps of wood make place at a new building measuring 115.50 meters out of 135 meters. It also makes replace the columns of the furnace bridge of the federal Sanctuaire of the three Gaules, located more at the east on the plate, which one reaches by a double slope illustrated by the current street Burdeau. The furnace bridge of the three Gaules is probably located under the Chardonnet place. These brick or limestone columns probably of the Rhone covered with marble make place with two splendid columns in Egyptian Syénite (About the year 1100, the two columns are transported to the Basilique Saint Martin's day d' Ainay and cut up into two, they are used as pillars of transept crossing).

Canabae

This place indicates usually a military place of quartering. He is known to us by a epigraphy (presented to the Musée of the Graeco-Roman civilization. He with is located at the neighborhoods of the Bellecour place. The archeologists currently refute the idea for a long time propagated which it was about an island. The confluence, at that time, was to be probably located at the south of the Place Bellecour. The recent geomorphological excavations show the existence of depressed zones, invaded by water at the time of risings. It is in particular the case of the current place of Célestins which is the subject of drainage and which undergoes important embankments until the 3rd century This district comprises many residences (attested by very many mosaics discovered during borings of the subway and the underground car parks) mainly located between the places Bellecour and Carnot, of the warehouses for the trade of the wine, whose merchants of Lugdunum hold the monopoly (like that of the oil of Spain). These warehouses are materialized by bases of pillars and tight screens of walls, made underfloor spaces of turned over amphoras, traces generally interpreted as being those of these storage sections.

The Right Bank of the Saone

The current district is a badly definite space from the archaeological point of view. One can however release some ideas thanks to the excavation campaigns on several small islands of dwellings or during the boring of the subway or the tunnel of Fourvière

In 1957 of important work for the construction of a residential building to the 3 of the street Tramassac reveal the existence of a water arm. Amable Audin supposes that it was detached from the place of the Exchange, running under the current streets of Ox and Tramassac, before joining the the Saone on the level of Saint-Georges. Other excavations make it possible to confirm the presence of this arm of the Saone which 13 meters is broad. A wharf is discovered at the time of an excavation to the foot of the hill of Fourvière: the Archeolabs laboratory provides a dendrochronologic dating of -27 to 18. In parallel, a second arm of the Saone sets up 150 meters more at the east. In the third quarter of the 2nd century, a Gallo-Roman habitat exists on the western part of the island which these two water arms delimit. Made of a masonry of small hardcores (Opus incertum) gross of granite, schist and limestone of the Gold Mounts and bound of a yellow mortar, a small building shelters two basins whose sealing is ensured by a mortar of broken tile. It is necessary to await the moitiée first of the 4th century so that the arm between the Midsummer's Day island and the hill is filled and colonized.
With the outlet of the small valley of Choulans, towards the current entry of the tunnel of Fourvière Saone side, is the district of the Nautes of the Saone, a noisy district where on the shore the statues of the owners of the communities are aligned on the bank beside the warehouses

Christianization

Of the Christian S come from Phrygie is established in Lugdunum. Holy Pothin and Sainte Blandine appears among the first martyrs, died in 177 under the reign of Marc Aurèle during one time of uncertainties for the Empire (plague, cruel invasions). Holy Irenee, successor of Pothin Saint, is one of the first Christian theologists of Greek language. Lyon becomes one of the intellectual centers of Christendom, illustrated at the 5th century by Sidoine Apollinaire.

Severe Septime

The city is equipped with a municipal administration managed by the Ordo decurionum composed of décurions and chaired by two duumvirs (civil and criminal jurisdiction). This institution comprises two questeurs (finances) and two municipal officials (police force and roadway system). Administrative capital, the city shelters the residence of the governors, in particular Septime Sévère into 187-188. It is there that are born its two sons Caracalla and Geta.

The city is hardly concerned the Christian martyrs that another drama bursts, it acts this time of a quarrel of succession. After the death of the emperor Commode is established a mode of pronunciamientos military. Three rivals end up clashing: Severe Septime, African, Pescennius Niger, ordering armies of the East and Clodius Albinus, a Roman aristocrat supported by the legions of Brittany. Severe draws aside Niger during the year 196 and enters to shift against Albinus. This one reacts, crosses Gaulle and settles in Lyon in waiting of the crossing of the Alps by its adversary. Its passage is attested by the emission of a cash to its effigy, in company of the Genius of Lyon. But Sévère sails round the Alps by the Alsace, recovers forces on the the Danube. The battle takes place with the end of the plate of Dombes or the feet of the solid mass of the Gold Mounts, or of course the plate in the west of the city to the site of the current commune of the Tassin-the-Half-Moon. Although undecided, the victory is acquired by the armies of Severe which continue the partisans of Albinus until under the walls of the city, and penetrate in the city, that they plunder because it had been the wrong to support Albinus.

After these events which mark the beginning of the decline, the city is equipped with a curator named with the head of Municipes. Thus Fulvius Aemilianus, curator of Lugdunum, had the load of the rectification of the city. The crisis passed, the imperial favors move away from the city. Although born in Lyon, Caracalla does not appreciate its town of origin. The Severe one do not mark the town of their print, except for Héliogabale to which the inhabitants offer towards 220 a statue whose base has is found among the stones which constitute the bridge of Guillotière destroyed in 1953.

Decline and crises of the Roman Empire

In 259, the raids alamans break in the valley of the Rhone until Arles. This tragic episode is marked by the discovery of two treasures:

the treasure of Vaise : an inhabitant buried his most invaluable goods but never returned to recover them. This treasure comprises a rich person crockery of money, jewels, coins and statuettes religious. It is exposed to the museum of the Graeco-Roman civilization.
the equipment and savings of soldier: at the time of the excavations of the avenue Adolphe max, are found a trunk of wood containing of the elements of armament (sword, coat of mail, Fibule, buckles of belt), as well as a leather purse containing 182 antonioni money. These elements allow a dating towards 259-260, contemporary Germanic raids; it is however astonishing that a soldier buried his treasure in this context.

A little later in 281, the inhabitants of Lugdunum support the usurpation of Proculus, rich landowner who arms 2000 with his slaves. It escapes with the approach of the legions of the emperor Probus. What translated this movement of unrealistic mood? One does not know. Tax dissatisfaction is a reason frequently evoked for the time.

At the end of the 3rd century at the time of the reorganizations of the Tétrarchie, Lugdunum loses its row of capital of Gaules, with the profit of Trier, nearer to the border of the Rhine. Lugdunum is nothing any more but the administrative seat of the small province of First Lyons (Lyonese, Burgundy and Franche-Comté).

About this period, the extent of Lugdunum narrowed considerably: for lack of water, the hill of Fourvière is deserted, and the habitat concentrates at the edge of the Saone and in the islands of the confluence.

Roman end of Lugdunum

In 437, Germanic tribes Burgonde S are installed in Savoy and Romandie like auxiliary troops by the Roman general Aetius after the destruction of their kingdom of Worms by the Huns. These Burgondes extend their domination during the disintegration of the Western Empire, and make of Lyon a capital of their kingdom in 461, with Vienna and Geneva. In this Burgondie, the integration of Burgondes and the Gallo-Romans is marked, on a legal level, by the proclamation of the Loi Gombette, introducing an equality of right, and, on the religious level, by the progressive passage of Burgondes of the Arianisme to Catholicism, with the king Sigismond.

In 532, the wire of Clovis, at the instigation of Clotilde, widowed princess burgonde of Clovis, makes pass this kingdom under the franque domination.

With the autumn 840, the forum of Fourvière collapses, the columns roll to the feet of the hill. Towards 1080, the construction of the bridge on the Saone marks the beginning of the use of the ancient site like stone quarry. At the time of its destruction, many stones dating from antiquity were found. About the year 1100, the two columns of the furnace bridge of the sanctuary of the three Gaules are transported to the Basilique Saint Martin's day d' Ainay. Cut up into two, they are used as pillars of transept crossing. In 1183, the construction of the bridge of Guillotière requires a great quantity of stones, of which a part comes from the ruins from the ancient city.

This one is used as stone quarry, and of many monuments are completely levelled. The statues are crushed to make lime. During the release of the frontage of Odéon, the archeologists find a lime kiln where the statues of the theater were crushed. One finds some elements of frontage, a caryatid and glares of marble.

Vestiges and testimonys of the past

Vestiges in the open air

four aqueducts. The Aqueduc of Gier which measures 75 km is longest.
the ancient Théâtre of Fourvière
the Amphithéâtre of the Three Gaules
the ancient Odéon with its remarkable pavement of orchestrated.
the Sanctuary of Cybèle, wrongfully called.
the taurobolic furnace bridge.
the Tomb of Turpio, one of the five mausoleums bordering one of the Roman ways leading to the high city
large thermal baths: only overdrafts in the high city.

Lyons treasures

Many treasures were discovered and almost all are exposed to the museum of the Graeco-Roman civilization of Lyon:

the treasure of Vaise: crockery, jewels and statuettes of money buried during a Germanic invasion in IIIe century.
the treasure of Obstructed found in 1826 and made up of approximately 2000 sums of money of Albinus.
the treasure of Saint-Didier-with-Mount-in Or found in 1844 with the skeletons of soldiers.
mosaics, in particular around fifty of them found on the peninsula.
the Tables Claudiennes : In 48, the Gallic ones obtained from the emperor Claude the possibility of access to the Roman magistratures and thus to the Romain Senate. They then made engrave on a bronze plate the speech made by the emperor with the Senate and exposed it to the sanctuary of the Three Gaules. The fragments of this plate are exposed to the museum of the Graeco-Roman civilization of Lyon.

Covered, destroyed or invisible excavations

Excavations made it possible to exhume many monuments and artefacts of which some are not or more visible because they left the place to buildings having covered them or parce what they are not presented yet to the public.

the Cave Bérelle: water cistern under the hill of Fourvière. Classified historic building: not-open to the public
Of the Gallo-Roman boats discovered during work of the Saint-Georges carpark in the Lyon Old man between 2003 and 2005: presentation with the public envisaged .
Of the late public thermal baths discovered during work of the Subway of Lyon under the avenue Adolphe max: the weak perimeter of the excavations does not make it possible to interpret the installation of the parts correctly. The unit is dated from 4th century a. J.C. : destroyed buildings
excavations of the Verb Incarnated: destroyed buildings
excavations of the thermal baths of the high city whose two higher terraces were covered with ground after the excavations and transforms in public garden: covered buildings
the house with the Xenia : the excavations at the time of the station of subway in Gorge of Wolf update a house occupied in Ier century: destroyed buildings but of which one of the decorations is visible with the Musée of the Graeco-Roman civilization

Roman characters born in Lugdunum

Two Roman Emperors were born in Lyon:

Claude, born in 10 av. J. - C.
Caracalla, born in 186

Like:

Germanicus
Pontius Pilate, born towards 10 av. J. - C., died towards 39 a. J.C
Geta, brother of the emperor Caracalla

See too

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