History of Lyon

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (September 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Lyon is a city in the southeast of France. The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times and was one of the most important cities of the Roman Empire, Lugdunum. After the Battle of Lugdunum (197) the city never fully recovered, and Lyon was built out of its ashes becoming a part of the Kingdom of the Burgundians.

Traces of human occupation during the Stone Age suggest that there may have already been trade routes from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe which passed through the site.^[1] By the Iron Age, an emporium existed which traded with Vienne (the Allobroges capital), where the Romans were already present.^[2] There is little evidence that there was much settlement in the area, but there is strong archeological evidence that Fourvière was a site where groups met and feasted, as they left thousands of amphora and animal bones behind.^[3] While there may not have been extensive settlement, there was already the infrastructure of trade and contact between the Segusiavi, Aedui, and Allobroges before the area became an important part of Roman history.^[2][4]

Lugdunum was an important Roman city in Gaul that was located where Lyon stands today. It was founded in 43 BC under a policy of establishing settlements in newly conquered areas, with the aims of ensuring the stability of those areas and rewarding retired veteran soldiers with land and rights. The settlement initiatives were established by Julius Caesar, and included the cities of Vienne, Noviodunum (Switzerland), and Augusta Raurica. The indigenous people in this area were the Allobroges.

Lucius Munatius Plancus, a former officer under Julius Caesar, and later proconsul of Gaul Chevelue, is credited with founding the city. The true date of the founding is debated by historians.^[5]

The colony was small and not heavily fortified, consisting of raised land and wooden palisades.^[6] It was named by its founder "Colonia Copia Felix Munatia Lugdunum"; later, under Emperor Claudius, it would be called "Colonia Copia Claudia Augusta Lugdunensium". The inhabitants then were placed in the Galeria tribe, the freedmen in the Palatina tribe.^[7]

Lugdunum grew considerably as the capital of the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Situated at a strategic point, the colony quickly became a great city owing to three particular features. Firstly, the campaign by Augustus, in the year 20 B.C., to conquer Germania. For this, Lugdunum was in an ideal location, with a network of roads which directly traced to the city center. This placed it at the center of Gallic communication, and it thus became the operations center for the northern territories. Secondly, during the first decades of the city's founding, the administrative organization of Gaul was not complete and governors provided general supervision and management, from Lugdunum to the whole region. Thirdly, the annual meeting of the notables in the confluence of the Gaul, held at Lyon from 12 B.C. on, reinforced the city's political position.

For 300 years after its foundation, it was the most important city in northwestern Europe. Two emperors, Claudius (Germanicus) and Caracalla, were born in Lugdunum. As a cultural crossroad, the city was Christianized very early. In Letters from a Stoic, from the first century AD, Seneca the Younger references the complete destruction and razing of the city in a great fire.

Thanks to its location and influence, the city grew and rapidly increased in wealth. Aqueducts were likely built between 20 and 10 B.C.,^[8] and a large number of monuments were also built during the same period. The oldest theater in the three Gauls, which had about 4500 seats, was opened in Lyon between 16 and 14 B.C. by decree of Augustus.^[9] This theater was later expanded under Hadrian to include around 10,700 seats. In 19 AD the Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls^[10] was inaugurated, and later enlarged circa 130–136. During the same period the altar of the federal sanctuary of the three Gauls was renovated.

The top of Fourvière hill, the site of the present basilica, was the heart of the Roman city during the apogee of its power. The forum, a temple, and probably the Curia and the Basilica, all were located there. During the second century, a Circus was built, but its location is uncertain: this monument was mostly known through a mosaic which depicted it. Antoninus Pius, about 160 AD, created an Odeon of 3000 seats.^[11]

Beyond the famous monuments, the city contained many different communities. Communities of traders thrived; the sailors, vinters, the plasterers, potters, etc. Each community was hierarchically organized, with a board of dignitaries representing the profession, and serving as the authorities of the trade structure. Some also owned their own cemeteries.

The population increased to nearly 70,000 inhabitants. Lugdunum became one of the greatest cities of Gaul, and a very cosmopolitan one. Many people had Greek names, over a quarter of the population according to Amable Audin.^[12]

Since its founding, the colony of Lugdunum had the status of Roman colony of right (optimo iure), its citizens had all the political and civic benefits of the Romans, but they paid more direct taxes.^[13] We have no texts of these city laws.^[7]

Lugdunum institutions included two groups: the magistrates and the senate. Magistrates were organized into three levels: quaestor, aedile and duumviri. Normally a notable rose in position from the first of these to the last. There are some exceptions such as a citizen who became duumvir directly after being a quaestor.^[14]

The quaestors were responsible for raising city funds, under the supervision of duumvirs. The aediles were responsible for the maintenance of roads, thermaes, markets, and public buildings. The duumvirs had judicial functions. It is stated how they questioned the Christians in 177. They also took care of elections and the Decurion council.

As Capital of Gaul, Lugdunum had several important political and spiritual attributes.

The legate of Roman Gaul resided in Lugdunum and managed its three constituent provinces; Gallia Belgica, Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Lugdunensis. From the beginning, the city had a mint. This mint was promoted to the rank of imperial mint in 15 BC. which was a unique privilege throughout the Empire. It remained until 78 AD. This mint briefly appeared again during 196-197 and was recreated by the Emperor Aurelian in 274, in order to fight against the devalued currencies and coin imitations which were very widespread. The workshop was devalued to a simply suppletive one in 294, when the Trêves's one started to work.^[7] It remained active, with some moments of high production, until 413.^[15]

The priesthood of the Imperial cult was the highest federal administrative office that the Gallic Roman citizens could be elected for. It was held in Lyon, in a temple of which we do not have nowadays any archaeological traces. Elected by their cities, the priests held a worship throughout the year, of which the highlight was a ceremony in August. During this ceremony delegates from all Gaul came to worship the emperor. The meetings of the delegates were not a sacramental act. People were appointed from this meeting of delegates in order to form the Council of Three Gauls.^[16] Equipped with substantial financial resources, its role was unclear, but could have served as a bridge between the Gallic elite and the emperors.^[17]

Due to its strategic position and its political influence, Lugdunum was involved in some major events during antiquity. It was also visited by many emperors.

Augustus visited it three times between 39 and 8 BC. He ordered a highway improvement of Roman Gaul and gave considerable importance to the city by installing the imperial mint in 15 BC in order to finance his campaigns in Germania. In 12 BC, the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls was inaugurated.^[18]

Caligula passed by once, in 39-40 AD with Ptolemy of Mauretania, his cousin. This event was celebrated with magnificent performances held in their honor.

Claudius was born in Lyon in 10 BC and returned there regularly, especially during his conquest of Britain between 43 and 47 AD. In addition to several archaeological traces of his Passages, his speech supporting the entry of Gauls in the Senate, which was transcribed on the Lyon Tablet, was preserved.^[19]

Under Nero, in 64 AD, the Romans of Lyon supported the victims of the Great Fire of Rome by sending the sum of four million sesterces. The following year, they were themselves victims of another fire, and Nero sent the same amount to rebuild the city. This fire, known only by a text by Seneca,^[20] has never been corroborated by archaeological evidence of a fire.^[7]

In 68, the legatus of Gallia Lugdunensis, Vindex, revolted against the power of Nero, with a part of Gaul. During this conflict, the people of Vienne besieged Lyon, but had to leave the battlefield after Vindex's defeat. However, Galba, the new and brief emperor, punished the people of Lugdunum for supporting Nero. But, in the political upheavals during the Year of the Four Emperors, Lugdunum found favor with another emperor, Vitellius, who chastised the people of Vienne.

Christianity was brought to Lugdunum by the Greeks from Asia Minor who had settled there in large numbers. In AD 177 the Christian community sent a letter to their co-religionists in Asia Minor, giving the names of 48 of their number who had suffered martyrdom in the Croix-Rousse amphitheatre, among them St Pothinus, first Bishop of Lyon.^[21] A vault located at the Museum of Early Christianity is presented by the ecclesiastical authorities as the jail of Saint Pothin The church was, however, to recover quickly, and St. Irenaeus, the successor of Pothinus, wrote works of such length and depth that he could be considered the fourth great Christian theologian (see St. Paul of Tarsus, St. John the Apostle, St. Ignatius of Antioch). In the 5th century this intellectual tradition was maintained by another son of Lugdunum, Sidonius Apollinaris.

In the period that followed the collapse of the Roman Empire of the West, Lyon survived as an important urban center. A number of important monastic communities had been established from the 4th to the 6th centuries (Ile Barbe, Saint Martin d'Ainay).^[22] In 843 it was assigned to Lotharingia by the Treaty of Verdun, and then passed to the Burgundian kingdom. Many foreigners flocked to Lyon once peace was restored, including a large number of Jewish people who traded in luxurious goods (precious stones, metals, jewelry, and fabrics).^[23] Pope Gregory VII conferred the title of “Primate of the Gauls” on the Archbishopric of Lyon in 1078.^[24] With Frederick Barbarossa's marriage to Béatrice, heiress of the Burgundy counts, the emperor formally recognized in 1157 the de facto ecclesiastical control over the city of Lyon with the Bulle d'Or.^[25]

One important aid to Lyon's prosperity was the nascent money-lending industry which facilitated trade with the East, as well as commerce at the Chalon and Champagne fairs.^[23] The Third Council of the Lateran (1179) reinforced the Christian prohibition on money-lending as a primary business, while lamenting that usurious practices were widespread.^[26] Indeed it was tolerated in Lyon as long as it was conducted either by Jews in the 12th and 13th centuries, or by the Lombard bankers after the explusion of the Jews from France by the edict of 17 September 1394 and their relocation to neighboring Trévoux, Saint-Symphorien-d'Ozon, and Vienne.^[27]

As military monastic orders settled in Lyon in the 12th century, the city became a comfortable stopover and temporary residence for the papacy during the Middle Ages.^[28] The coronation of both Clement V (at the Basilica of Saint Justus) and his aged successor John XXII took place in Lyon.^[29]

Lyon was the site of an urban revolt in 1436. A century of devastation caused by warfare was exacerbated by the peace of Arras, which brought écorcheurs to the Lyonnais countryside and Charles VII increased both direct (taille) and indirect (gabelle) taxation. The revolt altogether lasted two months, from April until June 6. The angry crowd targeted two main groups: royal commissioners and their bureaucrats and delinquent taxpayers. The most heavily represented groups among the rebels were barbers and beltmakers, i.e. small tradesmen. Charles VII arrived in Lyon on 20 December 1436 and ordered an investigation of the events that was still pending on 19 January 1437. Steyert claims that three inhabitants were sentenced to death, a barber with maiming and one hundred and twenty citizens with banishment.^[30]

During the reign of Louis XI (1461–83) four annual Lyon fairs [fr] were established, which drew merchants from all over Europe, especially Italy (and Florence in particular). Lyon became a major center for the spice trade and, even more importantly, the silk trade, following the authorization by François I of weaving privileges, hitherto an Italian monopoly. The Florentine immigrants, through these fairs, made Lyon into an important financial center for banking and insurance.^[31]

During the Renaissance Lyon was crowded and grew denser rather than expanding. In the late fifteenth century, the two most heavily populated areas were the right bank of the Saône and along the old Via Mercatoria running from the bridge over the Saône to the Guillotière bridge over the Rhone, home to an urban middle class.^[32]

By 1473, the new technology of the printing press had reached Lyon and the workshops were concentrated on rue Mercière on the peninsula between the two rivers. Throughout the Renaissance, Lyon was an important publishing center in Europe producing books in many languages. Editions of works by Erasmus, Rabelais, Scaliger, Étienne Dolet, Thomas More, Poliziano, and many other intellectual leaders were published by the Württemberger Sebastian Gryphius, who was the first Lyon printer to publish works entirely in Greek.^[33]

When French policy turned away from Italy in the 1550s, royal visits to Lyon became less frequent. It was also caught up in the religious wars and in 1562 was seized by Protestant troops. Lyon was the location of the meeting that resulted in 1601 in large parts of the Dukedom of Savoy being added to the French kingdom. Lyon lost the considerable degree of autonomy that it had hitherto enjoyed, but its commercial and industrial importance were unabated. During the 17th and 18th centuries its preeminence in silk production was unchallenged, with inventors like Vaucanson and Jacquard making far-reaching contributions to this industry. The geographical situation of Lyon meant that many artists and architects passed through it on their way to and from Italy, and their influence can be seen in the buildings of the period, such as the Hôtel-Dieu, the Loge du Change, and the Hôtel de Ville.^[34] During the 18th century the expansion resulting from increased prosperity indicated the need for a measure of systematic town planning, and this was carried out by a series of brilliant planners and architects such as de Cotte, Soufflot, Morand, and Perrache.

The French Revolution put an end to this quiet and prosperous period. In 1793, Lyon chose to support the Girondists against the "Convention" (the government that reigned from September 1792 to September 1795), in what became known as the revolt of Lyon against the National Convention and was considered too royalist. As a result, the city had to endure a 2-month siege. During the French Revolution, 2000 people were shot or decapitated in Lyon. The architectural work was suspended and numerous frontages were ruined, especially in the Place Bellecour neighborhood.

As in all the then French Kingdom, the French Revolution in 1789 brought a brutal halt to expansion. But development was re-vitalized under the Napoleonic Empire. Lyon became an industrial city and pursued its urban development with a distinct preference for the Haussman style prevalent at the time. Though the Canut revolts – revolt of silk weavers – tarnished the era, Lyon enjoyed an undeniable power which it carried into the 20th century.

Urban development continued to expand and change the face of the city, with the silk-processing industry playing a dominant role in the economy. By the end of the 19th century Lyon had 310 silk factories with 210,000 workers, and 320 silk traders. Exports went mainly to North America and England, but even to India and China.^[35]

During World War II, Lyon was the center of the French Resistance. Klaus Barbie (the "Butcher of Lyon") tortured prisoners for the occupying German forces, for which he was ultimately convicted of crimes against humanity. The post-war period marked the beginning of the race for modernity with a new challenge, the construction of Europe. Lyon acquired a European dimension through the development of the transportation system, hotel and other tourist facilities, cultural establishments and the creation of the Part-Dieu business quarter in 1960.

• Timeline of Lyon
• Ceintures de Lyon
• Cognet de Seynes
• List of books about the history of Lyon
• List of people from Lyon
• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lyon
• Second Council of Lyon
• Traboule

• Lucien Musset, Les Invasions, le second assaut contre l’Europe chrétienne, PUF, collection Nouvelle Clio – l’histoire et ses problèmes, Paris, 1965, 2nd édition 1971
• Visages du Lyonnais, ouvrage collectif – Ed des Horizons de France – 1952

List of books about the history of Lyon

• Fédou, René (2006). Les papes du moyen âge à Lyon: De Urbain II à Jean XXII (1095-1316) (in French). Lyon: Editions Lyonnaises d'Art et d'Histoire. p. 127. ISBN 2-84147-168-3.
• Pelletier, André; Rossiaud, Jacques; Bayard, Françoise; Cayez, Pierre (2007). Histoire de Lyon des origines à nos jours (in French). Lyon: Editions Lyonnaises d'Art et d'Histoire. p. 954. ISBN 978-2-84147-190-4.
• Poux, Mathieu; Savay-Guerraz, Hugues (2003). Lyon avant Lugdunum (in French). Gollion: Infolio. ISBN 2-88474-106-2.
• Vigne, Marcel (1903). La banque à Lyon du 15e au 18e siècle (in French). Lyon: A. Rey.