Roman Grand Theatre (Lyons)

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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.

 

First construction phase

Construction

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.

 

Use

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).

 

Second construction phase

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.

 

Finds

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).

 

Post-Ancient History

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.