Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls
Encyclopedia
Lugdunum
Colonia Copia Claudia Augusta Lugdunum 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. To 300 years after its foundation Lugdunum was the most important city to the west part of Roman...
(Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
) was part of the federal sanctuary of the three Gauls dedicated to the cult of Rome and Augustus celebrated by the 60 Gallic tribes when they gathered at Lugdunum. In 1961, it was classified as monument historique
Monument historique
A monument historique is a National Heritage Site of France. It also refers to a state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures, because of their...
.
First building
The amphitheatreAmphitheatre
An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
was built at the foot of the La Croix-Rousse
La Croix-Rousse
This zone is served by the metro line La Croix-Rousse is a hill in the town of Lyon, France, as well as the name of a quarter located on this hill . It is 254m at its peak...
hill at what was then the confluence of the Rhône
Rhône
Rhone can refer to:* Rhone, one of the major rivers of Europe, running through Switzerland and France* Rhône Glacier, the source of the Rhone River and one of the primary contributors to Lake Geneva in the far eastern end of the canton of Valais in Switzerland...
and Saône
Saône
The Saône is a river of eastern France. It is a right tributary of the River Rhône. Rising at Vioménil in the Vosges department, it joins the Rhône in Lyon....
. An inscription on one of the blocks found in 1957 (Inscription latine des Trois Gaules, n°217 (AE
L'Année épigraphique
L'Année épigraphique is a French publication on epigraphy. It was set up René Cagnat, as holder of the chair of 'Epigraphy and Roman antiquities' at the Collège de France, en 1888...
1959, n°61)) allows the amphitheatre to be connected with the sanctuary of Rome and Augustus and allows its origins to be identified :
[…]E TI(beris) CAESARIS AVG(vsti) AMPHITHEATR
[…]ODIO C IVL C[?] RVFVS SACERDOS ROM(ae) ET AVG(vsti)
[…]FILII F. ET NEPOS [-]X CIVITATE SANTON. D(e) S(ua). P(ecunia).FECERVNT
Which can be completed as
- [… Pro salvt]/e Ti(beri) Caesaris Avg(vsti) amphitheatr[-…] / [ ……… cvm] pod/io C(aivs) Ivl(ivs) C(aii) f(ilivs) Rvfvs sacerdos Romae et Avg(vsti) / [ …… C(aivs) Ivlivs C(aii) ?] filii f(ilivs) et nepos ex civitate Santon(orvm) d(e) s(va) p(ecvnia) fecervnt.
- For the safety of TiberiusTiberiusTiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
Caesar Augustus, C. Julius Rufus, citizen of the city of SantonsMediolanum SantonumMediolanum Santonum was a Roman town of southwestern Gaul, now Saintes. It was founded in about 20 BC in connection with an expansion of the network of Roman roads serving Burdigala...
(Saintes), priest of RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and of Augustus, [and Caius Julius ?…] his son and grandson built this amphitheatre and its podium at their own expense.
This dates the building to 19 A.D. The figures who financed its construction belonged to an old Gallic family in Saintes which had held Roman citizenship since the Gallic Wars
Gallic Wars
The Gallic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged by the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar against several Gallic tribes. They lasted from 58 BC to 51 BC. The Gallic Wars culminated in the decisive Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, in which a complete Roman victory resulted in the expansion of the...
and also built the arch of Germanicus
Arch of Germanicus
The Arch of Germanicus is an ancient Roman triumphal arch in Saintes, Charente-Maritime in France. It was built in 18 or 19 by a rich citizen of the town , C. Julius Rufus, and dedicated to the emperor Tiberius and his adoptive sons Drusus Caesar and Germanicus...
there. The curious formula "filii f(ilius)" perhaps derives from a wish to affirm the antiquity and continuity of the family's lineage, as on the arch of Germanicus, which names Rufus's ancestors.
Other stones bear the names of Gallic tribes (Arverni
Arverni
The Arverni were a Gallic tribe living in what is now the Auvergne region of France during the last centuries BC. One of the most powerful tribes in ancient Gaul, they opposed the Romans on several occasions...
, Tricasses
Tricasses
The Tricasses were a Gallic tribe which lived along the Seine in what is now Champagne. They gave their name to Troyes, which bore the name Augustobona during the Roman period and served as the capital of the Tricasses. Administratively they were attached to Gallia Lugdunensis...
, Bituriges
Bituriges
The Bituriges was a tribe with its capital at Bourges .Early in the 1st century BCE, they had been one of the main tribes, especially in terms of Druids and their political influence. But they soon declined in power as the Druids were an important target for Julius Caesar in his conquest of Gaul...
) confiring its identification as federal sanctuary.
Excavations have revealed a basement of three elliptical walls linked by cross-walls and a channel surrounding the oval central arena. The arena was slightly sloped, with the building's south part supported by a now-vanished vault. The arena's dimensions are 67.6m by 42m, analogous to those at the arenas at Nîmes
Arena of Nimes
The Arena of Nîmes is a Roman amphitheater found in the French city of Nîmes. Built around 70 AD, it was remodeled in 1863 to serve as a bullring. The Arenas of Nimes is the site of two annual bullfights, and it is also used for other public events....
and Arles
Arles Amphitheatre
The Arles Amphitheatre is a Roman amphitheatre in the southern French town of Arles. This two-tiered Roman Amphitheatre is probably the most prominent tourist attraction in the city of Arles, which thrived in Roman times....
, though with a smaller number of rows of seats (probably only 4 levels) that gave the amphitheatre external dimensions of 81m by 60m (much smaller than those of Nîmes, which was 133m by 101m).
This phase of the amphitheatre housed games which accompanied the imperial cult
Imperial cult (Ancient Rome)
The Imperial cult of ancient Rome identified emperors and some members of their families with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Roman State...
, with its low capacity (1,800 seats) being enough for delegations from the 60 Gallic tribes.
Expansion
The amphitheatre was expanded at the start of the 2nd century, according to J. Guey by C. Julius Celse, procurator of Gallia LugdunensisGallia Lugdunensis
Gallia Lugdunensis was a province of the Roman Empire in what is now the modern country of France, part of the Celtic territory of Gaul. It is named after its capital Lugdunum , possibly Roman Europe's major city west of Italy, and a major imperial mint...
from 130 to 136. Two galleries were added around the old amphitheatre, raising its width from 25 metres to 105 metres and its capacity to about 20,000 seats (though this was still modest compared to the amphitheatres at Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
and Arles
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....
). In so doing it made it a building open to the whole population of Lugdunum and its environs. Historians identify the building as the site of Saints Blandina
Blandina
-Martyrdom:In the summer of 177, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, witnessed an increasing hostility to Christians in his own city. First they were prohibited from entering public places such as the markets and the baths. Then, when the provincial governor was outside the city, the mob broke loose....
and Pothinus
Saint Pothinus
Saint Pothinus is a figure of uncertain historicity, who is first mentioned in a letter attributed to Irenaeus of Lyon. The letter was sent from the Christian communities of Lyon and Vienne to the Roman province of Asia....
's martyrdoms as part of the persecution in 177
177
Year 177 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Commodus and Plautius...
and a post in the middle of the arena commemorates this event and Pope John-Paul II's visit to Lyon in 1986.