Ara trium galliarum

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The altar of the sanctuary on a Dupondius of Augustus

The Ara trium Galliarum (German: "Altar of the three Gaulish Provinces" , in French often referred to as the Sanctuaire fédéral des Trois Gaules , "Federal Shrine of the Three Gaul" ) was a Roman sanctuary near Lugdunum , today's Lyon . The marble altar in the center was dedicated to the goddess Roma and the Roman emperor .

background

After the reorganization of the Roman provinces by Emperor Augustus, Lugdunum was the center of the three Gallic provinces ( Gallia Lugdunensis , Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Belgica ). Therefore, the provincial parliament ( concilium provinciae ) met there , at which the representatives of the 60 Gallic districts ( civitates ) met annually on August 1st. Drusus , Augustus' stepson, set up the Ara trium Galliarum as the location for these meetings as part of the preparations for his large-scale Germania offensive in the 2nd decade of the 1st century BC. Set up. The task of the state parliament was, among other things, to exercise the imperial cult . This included making the sacrifice for the emperor and hosting games in honor of the ruler and the goddess Roma . In this way the subjugated Gallic tribes showed their loyalty to Rome. A provincial priest presided over the ceremony; the participating envoys were usually chosen by the senate of their city from among the local aristocracy, the decurion class . The religious celebrations consisted of sacrifices, processions, games, eloquence and poetry competitions. In addition, the assembly also played a political role, since it could address the emperor as a representative of the Gaulish provinces and convey official messages to him.

It is controversial whether the annual Gallic provincial diets were in the tradition of older religious rituals from the pre-Roman times. Among other things, this also depends on the question of whether the date August 1st refers to a festival in honor of the Celtic sun god Lugus or whether it simply refers to the date of the conquest of Alexandria by Augustus and thus an important event from his assumption of power.

Only a few priests of the sanctuary are known by name. The first official was the Haeduer Gaius Iulius Vercondaridubnus in the year 12 BC. His successors included the Kadurker Marcus Lucterius Sencianus and the Santone Gaius Iulius Rufus. The latter had the amphitheater of Lyon built, so that his term of office can be limited to the second decade AD. Later, the so-called Tabula claudiana , which has been partially preserved and is now in the Lyons museum "Lugdunum" , was probably set up in the sanctuary . On this bronze plaque (2.50 mx 1.93 m) is engraved a speech that Emperor Claudius gave in 48 and in which he promised the Gallic nations that they would be eligible for election to the Roman magistrate and senate . A version of this address has also been handed down by Tacitus .

Analogous to the Ara trium Galliarum , the ara Ubiorum for the Germanic provincial assembly was created in the oppidum Ubiorum , today's Cologne .

Reconstruction of the altar after a Roman coin (François Artaud, 1820)

sanctuary

reconstruction

Although archaeological finds are almost completely missing, the altar can be reconstructed on the basis of ancient written sources and representations on coins, even if these only show schematic images. The so-called Lyon Altar Series , a series of coins that were minted to commemorate the erection of the altar, is one of the important sources . These series of mints are among other things an important chronological fixed point for the dating of sites of the Augustan Germanic campaigns .

The ancient writer Strabo writes about the appearance of the Ara trium Galliarum in his “Geography”: “... furthermore, the sanctuary jointly donated by all Galatians [= Gauls] for Caesar Augustus [= Emperor Augustus] is located in front of this city at the confluence of the rivers (es consists of a stately altar with an inscription of the names of the peoples - sixty in number -, portraits of each of these peoples and a great other (?)). ”At the end of the quotation the text is corrupt and cannot be reconstructed with certainty. For example, it is sometimes assumed that instead of “ἄλλος” (“the other”) there was originally “ναός” (“temple”), that is, Strabo wrote about a large temple building as part of the sanctuary. Objectively, however, this is considered impossible, since such a building certainly did not exist there during Strabon's lifetime.

In 1866 discovered Victoria statuette from the Saône, probably a replica of the large Victoria statues of the Ara trium Galliarum
Inscription in honor of Averners Gaius Servilius Martianus, who is referred to as “priest at the temple of the Roma and the emperors” ( CIL XIII, 1706 )

The altar apparently rested on a marble base with a dedication to Roma and Augustus in bronze letters . Two large columns on which sculptures of the goddess of victory Victoria were placed next to the altar are likely to have stood on it . The total height of the statues and columns was probably 14 meters. The statues themselves have not survived, but a small Victoria statuette was found in the Saône in 1866 , which is believed to have been modeled on the large sculptures of the Ara trium Galliarum . The pillars themselves were recovered in the 11th century and sawed in half. Today they form the four half-columns in the transept of the Saint-Martin d'Ainay church , the dome of which they support. The columns are made of Egyptian gray-yellow granite and are decorated with Doric capitals .

Some time after the sanctuary was erected, there was a change in the choice of words of the inscriptions, which were occasionally erected in honor of priests of the Ara trium Galliarum . While they were initially only referred to as "priests at the altar [... of the Roma and Augustus]" ("sacerdos ad aram" or "sacerdos arae"), the title was later "priest at the temple" ("ad templum") or "Priest at the altar by the temple" or "Priest at the temple by the altar". Accordingly, it can be assumed that a temple was built at this time, but no other archaeological remains can be safely assigned to it. Based on the cited inscriptions, it can only be established that the building must have been built after the year 74 ( terminus post quem ). The foundation of the temple construction is often attributed to the emperor Hadrian , who visited Lugdunum in 121 and, according to a fragmentary inscription, also made some form of foundation there.

location

Since the sanctuary has been completely destroyed, it can only be located based on guesswork. Traditionally it is believed to have been on the slope of the hill of La Croix-Rousse . However, an archaeological investigation from 2006 calls into question the previous positioning of the sanctuary between the lower part of Rue Burdeau and the upper part of Rue des Tables-Claudiennes on the southern slope of La Croix-Rousse. Daniel Frascone suspects the entrance to the Ara between the streets Burdeau and Pouteau and the altar on the top of the hill. The two places are connected by a kind of ramp that lies along the streets Montée de la Grande Côte and Montée Saint-Sébastien, i.e. follows the current street layout.

The amphitheater of Lyon , which is dated to the 2nd decade after Christ, was probably also laid out as part of the federal shrine . This was where the games were held, which framed the annual provincial assembly of the Gallic tribes. Under Emperor Hadrian , the complex was expanded significantly, so that a considerable part of the city's population now found space there. In 177 it was allegedly the scene of a persecution of Christians, the victims of which are described as the martyrs of Lyon .

Web links

Commons : Altar of Lugdunum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Duncan Fishwick: The Imperial Cult in the Latin West. Volume 1.1 (= Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain. Volume 108). Brill, Leiden 1987, ISBN 90-04-07179-2 , pp. 97-137.
  • Robert Turcan: Un bimillénaire méconnu: l'assemblée des trois Gaules . In: Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Volume 135, 1991, pp. 733-742 ( digitized version ).
  • Duncan Fishwick: The dedication of the Ara trium Galliarum. In: Latomus . Volume 55, Number 1, 1996, pp. 87-100, JSTOR 41537549 .
  • Anne-Catherine Le Mer, Claire Chomer: Carte archéologique de la Gaule. Volume 69/2: Lyon. Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-87754-099-5 , especially pp. 278-280.
  • Djamila Fellague: La difficulté de datation des monuments. Speaking of the monuments de Lugudunum, en particulier ceux considérés comme hadrianiques. In: Revue archéologique de l'Est. Volume 65, 2016, pp. 187-214 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruno Dumézil: Des Gaulois aux Carolingiens . Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 2013, p. 38 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ See Ernst Kornemann : Concilium . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IV, 1, Stuttgart 1900, Col. 801-830, here Col. 803.
  3. ↑ Titus Livius , Ab urbe condita Periochae 139.
  4. ↑ Christian Goudineau: Gaul . In: The Cambridge Ancient History . 2nd edition, Volume 10: The Augustan Empire, 43 BC – AD 69. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1996, ISBN 0-521-26430-8 , 464-502, here p. 500.
  5. ↑ CIL XIII, 1668
  6. ^ Werner Eck : Cologne in Roman times. History of a city in the context of the Imperium Romanum (= history of the city of Cologne. Volume 1). Greven, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-7743-0357-6 , p. 86 f.
  7. ^ Strabo, Geography 4,3,2. Translation after: Stefan Radt : Strabons Geographika. Volume 1: Prolegomena, Book I – IV: Text and translation. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-25950-6 , pp. 499-501.
  8. ^ Stefan Radt: Strabons Geographika. Volume 5: Abbreviated cited literature. Book I – IV: Commentary. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-525-25954-9 , p. 442.
  9. ^ Anne-Catherine Le Mer, Claire Chomer: Carte archéologique de la Gaule. Volume 69/2: Lyon. Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-87754-099-5 , pp. 278 f.
  10. ↑ Amable Audin, Pierre Quoniam: Victoires et columns de l'autel fédéral des Trois Gaules: données nouvelles . In: Gallia. Volume 20, 1962, pp. 103-116 ( digitized version ).
  11. ↑ CIL XIII, 1036 , CIL XIII, 1674 , CIL XIII, 1541
  12. ^ “Ad templum”: CIL XIII, 1691 , CIL XIII, 1706 , CIL XIII, 1714 , CIL XIII, 1716 ; "Ad aram ... apud templum": CIL XIII, 1702 , CIL XIII, 1712 ; "Apud aram ... ad templum": CIL XIII, 11174
  13. ↑ CIL XIII, 1685
  14. ↑ On the dating of the temple building Djamila Fellague: La difficulté de datation des monuments. Speaking of the monuments de Lugudunum, en particulier ceux considérés comme hadrianiques. In: Revue archéologique de l'Est. Volume 65, 2016, pp. 187-214, here pp. 206 f. ( online ).
  15. ↑ Daniel Frascone: Une nouvelle sur le hypothèse sanctuaire the Three Gauls à Lyon. In: Revue Archéologique de l'Est. Volume 60, 2011, pp. 189-216 ( online ).

Coordinates: 45 ° 46 ′ 13.9 ″  N , 4 ° 49 ′ 50.1 ″  E