Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls

In front of you are the remains of one of the most symbolic monuments of Roman Gaul. Here, near the old confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, stood the federal sanctuary of the Three Gauls, dedicated to the worship of Rome and Augustus.

1Sixty peoples, one altar

From 12 BC, delegates of the sixty peoples of Gaul gathered here every year, in early August, around a great altar. The amphitheatre was built in AD 19, paid for by a nobleman from Saintes, Gaius Julius Rufus, as an inscription found on the site records. It was later enlarged to hold some 20,000 people.

Close by, on the slopes of the hill, the Claudian Table was found in 1528: a bronze bearing the speech in which the emperor Claudius, born in Lugdunum, asked in AD 48 for Gaulish notables to be admitted to the Roman Senate.

2The martyrs of 177

In the summer of 177, under Marcus Aurelius, Lyon's small Christian community was persecuted. A letter from the Christians of Lyon and Vienne, preserved by Eusebius of Caesarea, tells of the death of Bishop Pothinus, aged about ninety, and of the slave girl Blandina, who held out against wild beasts and torture.

Historians place the execution of several of those martyrs in this arena; Blandina is now the patron saint of Lyon.

3What to look for

• The oval shape of the arena, about 68 by 42 metres.
• The podium walls, which separated the audience from the arena.
• The slope: the amphitheatre was built against the hillside.