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The amphitheater of Lyon (French Amphithéâtre des Trois Gaules, German Amphitheater der Drei Gaules), in Lugdunum (today's Lyon) is a Roman amphitheater and was part of the "federal sanctuary of the three Gallic provinces" (Ara trium Galliarum) in ancient times. The sanctuary served the worship of the Roma and Augustus by the Gallic tribes, which were organized into three provinces (Gallia Belgica, Gallia Aquitania, Gallia Lugdunensis) and whose central place was Lugdunum. The building was probably built in the second decade of the 1st century AD and, together with the structures by Ucubi and Emerita Augusta, is one of the oldest amphitheaters outside of present-day Italy. Originally a comparatively small building intended primarily for the upper class and the delegates of the Gallic tribes, it was expanded in the middle of the 2nd century into a much larger complex that offered space for the entire city population. The amphitheater is located at the foot of the hill of La Croix-Rousse, where in ancient times the rivers Rhône and Saône converged.
In February 1958, during the first professional excavations at the
amphitheater, an inscription was found that was probably originally
attached to an entrance to the building and consisted of three large
blocks of limestone. Of these, the two on the right have been preserved
because they were reused to cover a well after the amphitheater was
abandoned; but they have broken through in the middle. The blocks
measure 1.78 m × 80 cm × 27 cm; the letter height is 10-15 cm. The text
that is either still available or can be deduced reads (rendered
according to the Leiden bracket system): "[Pro salut]e Ti(beri) Caesaris
Aug(usti) amphitheatr(um) / [--- cum] podio C(aius) Iul( ius) C(ai)
f(ilius) Rufus sacerdos Rom(ae) et Aug(usti) / [---] filii f(ilius) et
nepos ex civitate Santon(um) d(e) s(ua) p( ecunia) fecerunt.”[1] This
translates roughly as follows (ignoring the ambiguity caused by the
missing third): “In honor of Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Gaius Iulius
Rufus, son of Gaius, priest of the Roma and Augustus, and his Son and
grandson, members of the Santonian civitas, built the amphitheater with
podium at their own expense.”
Gaius Iulius Rufus appears to have
come from an ancient aristocratic family of Gallic Saintes who had
acquired Roman citizenship through a member of the Juliet imperial house
(thus adopting the praenomen Gaius and the nomen gentile Iulius). The
inscription was related to the inscription on the Arch of Germanicus in
Saintes, built by Gaius Iulius Rufus in AD 18–19. The unusual
formulation "filii f(ilius)" ("son of the son") probably arose from the
desire to refer to the long ancestral line, which is also emphasized in
an inscription on the arch of Germanicus. The construction of the
amphitheater is often dated to the same year in which the Arch of
Germanicus was built. Ultimately, however, there is no evidence that the
Gallo-Roman nobleman also officiated as chief priest of the three Gallic
provinces in Lugdunum in the same year in which he had the Arch of Honor
erected. Louis Maurin therefore proposes to date the amphitheater
somewhat earlier, around AD 10-15.
The amphitheater served the games that accompanied the imperial cult.
Its comparatively small capacity of about 3,000 seats in its original
form can be explained by the fact that it was not primarily designed to
entertain a large city population, but above all for the delegations of
the 60 Gaulish districts (civitates). The excavations have uncovered a
basement formed by three elliptical walls connected by transverse walls
and a canal encircling the oval of the central arena. Because the
terrain slopes slightly, the south side of the building was supported by
an arch, but this has now disappeared. The size of the arena, i.e. the
inner area used for the fighting (67.6 m × 42 m), corresponds to
comparable buildings in Nîmes or Arles. Due to the reduced number of
rows of benches (apparently four tiers), the external dimensions (81 m ×
101 m) of the facility in Lugdunum are significantly smaller than those
of Nîmes (133 m × 101 m).
The amphitheater also appears in the
literary sources of the first and early second centuries AD: Suetonius,
in his biography of Emperor Caligula, mentions games that he held at
Lugdunum, which included various sporting and intellectual disciplines.
Tacitus reports in his histories of a rebel named Mariccus, who wanted
to restore Gaul's freedom from the Romans during the year of the four
emperors AD 69, but was then killed by Emperor Vitellius in the arena
(whereby the wild animals are said not to have touched him , so that an
execution was necessary).
Expansion in the 2nd century
The amphitheater was
significantly enlarged in the first half of the 2nd century, so that
the original structure was only the foundation for a new arena.
Jules Guey made an attempt to date this extension in the excavation
report of the first campaign. It refers to an inscription fragment
found near the building complex in 1957, on which apart from the
rest of a D only the letters "...AE LIGN..." can be seen. Guey adds
it to "[Curator Vi]ae Lignariae Triumphalis", i.e. the official
title for an officer for a public road (curator viae) that cannot be
precisely determined. The only known holder of this office was Gaius
Iulius Celsus, who some years later (AD 130-136) acted as governor
of the province of Gallia Lugdunensis; According to Jules Guey, he
had the amphitheater expanded during his tenure and, as part of his
cursus honorum, also listed the office in the building inscription
that was erected, the remains of which can be read on the surviving
piece of stone. Maria Letizia Caldelli, on the other hand, sees no
list of a senatorial career in the inscription, but the tombstone of
a woman named "[...]a Lign[...]", and interprets the D as the rest
of the tombstone formula Dis Manibus. But she also considers it
probable that the expansion of the building took place under
Hadrian, i.e. between 117 and 138, since this emperor had the
federal sanctuary of the Three Gauls expanded and his name can
possibly be found on an inscription from the amphitheater itself
(see below in the Finds section).
The old theater was
expanded by two tiers as part of this expansion, increasing the
external dimensions to 105 m × 80 m, although this remained modest
compared to Nîmes or Arles.
Further use
This conversion
increased the capacity to 26,000 seats, creating a building that
could accommodate the population of Lugdunum and its environs.
An alleged letter from the Christians from Lugdunum to their
fellow believers in Asia and Phrygia, which is handed down by the
late antique church historian Eusebius of Caesarea and is said to
date from the summer of 177 AD, reports on the torture of four
martyrs who belonged to the 47 so-called Martyrs of Lyon can be
counted. These are Maturus, Sanctus, Blandina and Attalus. Pothinus,
the first documented bishop of Lyons, may also have suffered
martyrdom at this time; with him the manner of death has not been
handed down. Due to contradictions, the historicity of the events is
sometimes doubted.
Various small stone or metal finds, some coins and various
inscriptions were brought to light in the amphitheater as part of the
planned excavations, but in part even before that in the 19th century.
Most of the epigraphic finds, namely 18 in total as of 2007, are stone
tablets that were placed over individual seats to reserve them for
specific people. Most of them are only very fragmentary and cannot be
supplemented with certainty. Therefore, a dating in one of the two
construction phases is often not possible. According to the surviving
remains, some places probably belonged to the Augustales, others to the
representatives of certain Gallic tribes such as the Arverni, Tricassen
and Biturigen, still others to wholesalers from Macedonia or
individuals. This reflects the use of the amphitheater which, as part of
the federal sanctuary, was a project of pan-Gaul importance and of
course linked to the rest of the Roman world.
One of the personal
reservation inscriptions is attributed to the builder of the
amphitheater, Gaius Iulius Rufus (only the letters C(aius) IV(lius)
survive), another possibly to the emperor Hadrian, who stayed in
Lugdunum and initiated the expansion of the amphitheater (however, only
the letters NVS are preserved here, to which in principle almost any
Roman name can be added).
After its abandonment, the theater became a quarry. A
16th-century plan still shows some arches and a depression (the
arena) called the basket of the desert (French: corbeille de la
déserte).
The first excavations between 1818 and 1820
uncovered the area around the arena, but the area was then filled in
again. The southern part of the complex was destroyed in the course
of urbanization in the 19th century. Serious excavations began in
1956, the first results of which were presented in 1962. Further
excavations took place in 1966-1967, 1971-1972 and 1976-1978. These
investigations enabled more precise architectural investigations,
but only the base structures of two to three steps of the podium
have survived, and even then only on about half of the original
building area. On the north side, an entrance leads through the rows
of seats, part of the side walls of which are still standing. These
remaining remains were integrated into the Jardin des plantes and
can be visited. Further excavations did not take place after the
late 1970s, only a few inscriptions were rediscovered and published.
The remains of the site in Lyon were declared a monument
historique on November 27, 1961. During a visit by Pope John Paul II
in 1986, a wooden memorial column was erected in the center of the
amphitheater to commemorate the ancient persecutions of Christians
that took place there.