Lugdunum: Roman Lyons

The Vaise Treasure, buried around AD 260 and excavated in 1992

Lugdunum, modern Lyon, France, was in Roman times the greatest city of northwestern Europe, with a population of about 70,000. It was founded in about 43 BC as a settlement of veterans from Caesar's wars. The spot is such a great one – at the confluence of two significant rivers, perfectly positioned to control overland trade from the Mediterrean to Gaul and Britain – that it ought to have beeen settled a long time before that. Archaeologists, alas, have had a hard time documenting this. There seems to have been a small settlement on a nearby hill, but when people dig in the rest of the Roman city all they find is Roman stuff. Numerous stray artifacts from the Iron Age have turned up, but no little evidence of buildings. One interesting thing that has been found is pits full of animal bones, such as might be left from a great feast. So the reigning theory is that in the Iron Age most of the site was a sort of fair ground where people from north and south met to trade and feast, kept neutral by not allowing anyone to build there.

Roman Lugdunum grew rapidly. It got a big boost from Augustus' campaign to conquer Germania, which began in 20 BC. Lugdunum became a major supply hub, and a network of roads was built or improved radiating out from the city in all directions. By 10 BC the city had a major aqueduct and a theater that seated 4,500.

Emperor Claudius – above, on a coin minted in Lugdunum – had a great bridge built across the river, which required sinking the pylons deep through the swampy ground.

One of the most famous objects in the Lugdunum Musée et Théâtres Romains is the Sarcophagus with the Triumph of Bacchus, carved around 200 AD and found in 1845.

Bronze statue of Neptune known as the Neptune of Lyon.

Part of the Claudian Table, a large bronze plaque recording a speech Emperor Claudius gave at Lugdunum in 48 AD, found in 1526.

The "swastika mosaic," excavated in 1911 from a grand villa within the city.

Map of the Roman city.

The Circus Mosaic. Wish I were going to this museum today instead of what I have to do.