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ancient Roman city on the site of modern Lyon, France
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Lugdunum (also spelled Lugudunum, Latin: [ɫʊɡ(ʊ)ˈduːnʊ̃ː]; modern Lyon, France) was an important Roman city in Gaul, established on the current site of Lyon.
The Roman city was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus, but continued an existing Gallic settlement with a likely population of several thousands. It served as the capital of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis and was an important city in the western half of the Roman Empire for centuries. Two emperors, Claudius and Caracalla, were born in Lugdunum. In the period AD 69–192 , the city's population may have numbered 50,000 to 100,000, and possibly up to 200,000 inhabitants.
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.
The Roman city was 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 1st century AD. During the Middle Ages, Lugdunum was transformed to Lyon by natural sound change.
Lugdunum is a Latinization of the Gaulish *Lugudunon, meaning "Fortress (or hill) of (the god) Lugus" or, alternately, "Fortress of the champion" (if *lugus is a common noun cognate with Old Irish lug "warrior, hero, fighter").
In addition to continental epigrams referencing Lugus, the Celtic god has been connected to popular figures in Ireland and Britain as are found in medieval Irish literature as Lug(h) and in medieval Welsh literature as Lleu (also spelled Llew).
According to Pseudo-Plutarch, Lugdunum takes its name from an otherwise unattested Gaulish word lugos, that he says means "raven" (κόρακα), and the Gaulish word for an eminence or high ground (τόπον ἐξέχοντα), dunon.
An early interpretation of Gaulish Lugduno as meaning "Desired Mountain" is recorded in a gloss in the 9th-century Endlicher's Glossary, but this may in fact reflect a native Frankish speaker's folk-etymological attempt at linking the first element of the name, Lugu- (which, by the time this gloss was composed, would have been pronounced lu'u, the -g- having become silent) with the similar-sounding Germanic word for "love", *luβ.
Another early medieval folk-etymology of the name, found in gloss on the Latin poet Juvenal, connects the element Lugu- to the Latin word for "light", lux (luci- in compounds) and translates the name as "Shining Hill" (lucidus mons).
Archeological evidence shows Lugdunum was a pre-Gallic settlement as far back as the Neolithic era, and a Gallic settlement with continuous occupation from the 4th century BC, during the La Tène period. It was situated on the Fourvière heights above the Saône river. There was trade with Campania for ceramics and wine, and use of some Italic-style home furnishings before the Roman conquest.
The Romans controlled the southern portion of Gaul by the 2nd century BC, founding the province of Gallia Transalpina in 121 BC. Gaul was conquered for the Romans by Julius Caesar between 58 and 53 BC. His description of the country in his De Bello Gallico is our principal written source of knowledge for pre-Roman Gaul, but there is no specific mention of the area in or around Lugdunum.
Roman colonization of Lugdunum began during the War of Mutina, one of the conflicts that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. According to the historian Cassius Dio, in 43 BC 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 or 20 miles to the south) by the Allobroges and were encamped at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers. Dio Cassius says this was to keep them from joining Mark 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 the Roman foundation. The citizens were administratively assigned to the Galerian tribe. The aqueduct of the Monts d'Or, completed around 20 BC, was the first of at least four aqueducts supplying water to the city.
Within 50 years Lugdunum increased greatly 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 (the Via Agrippa): south to Narbonensis, Massilia and Italy, north to the Rhine river and Germany, northwest to the sea (the English Channel), and west to Aquitania (Via Aquitania).
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 centre of the Gallic provinces. Its large and cosmopolitan population made it the commercial and financial heart of the northwestern provinces as well.
Lugdunum became an imperial mint during the reign of Augustus, in 15 BC, replacing mints in Hispania. It was probably chosen because of its convenient location between sources of silver and gold in Hispania and the legions on the Rhine and Danube. After 12 BC, it was the sole mint producing gold and silver coinage for the whole Roman Empire, a position it retained until Nero moved production back to Rome in 64 AD.
In its 1st century, Lugdunum was many times the object of attention or visits by the emperors or the imperial family. Agrippa, Drusus, Tiberius, and Germanicus (born himself in Lugdunum) were among the gubernatorial 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 5–4 BC, on his way to the Rhine, and again in 21 AD, campaigning against the Andecavi. Caligula made a longer visit in 39–40, as 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.
Southeastern Gaul became increasingly Romanized. By 19 AD at least one temple, and the first amphitheatre in Gaul (now known as the Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls) had been built down the slopes of the Croix-Rousse hill, next to the Vaise district where Gallic workers worked with precious metals, copper and also glass or pottery on both sides of the Saône lived (the space between Rhone and Saône was a swamp often flooded) .
In AD 48 , 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.
Caligula spent time in Lugdunum in AD 39–40 , at the beginning of his third consulate; the historian Suetonius described the visit as characteristic of this emperor's strange and extravagant reign. Spectacles were staged at the amphitheater to honor and entertain Caligula and his guest, Ptolemy, king of Mauretania (whom the emperor 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. When Caligula wanted to get rid of Herod Antipas, Jewish tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, he sent him to exile in Lugdunum.
Claudius was born in Lugdunum in 10 BC and lived there for at least two years. As emperor, he returned in AD 43 en route to his conquest of Britain and stopped again after its victorious conclusion in AD 47. A fountain honoring his victory has been uncovered. He continued to take a supportive interest in the town, making its noblemen 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 the same year, the Lugdunum mint was closed and production shifted to Rome. A few years later, Nero contributed four million sesterces to the rebuilding of Lugdunum after a similarly devastating fire. 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 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. The citizens of Vienne, however, 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.
In another turnabout for Lugdunum, Galba's policies were immediately unpopular, and in January AD 69 , 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. Under Vespasian, the city briefly resumed production of bronze coinage, ending a shortage in the money supply that had developed in the previous years.
Despite a lack of imperial visits for most of the next century, Lugdunum prospered, until Septimius Severus and the Battle of Lugdunum (see below) brought devastation in AD 197 .
In the 2nd century AD, Lugdunum prospered and grew to a population of 25,000 to 40,000 persons. Four aqueducts brought water to the city's fountains, public baths, and wealthy homes. The aqueducts were well engineered and included several siphons. 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.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Lugdunum”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.