Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls 2.46

The Amphitheatre of the Three Gauls of Lugdunum was part of the federal sanctuary of the three Gauls dedicated to the cult of Rome and Augustus celebrated by the 60 Gallic tribes when they gathered at Lugdunum. In 1961, it was classified as monument historique.HistoryFirst buildingThe amphitheatre was built at the foot of the La Croix-Rousse hill at what was then the confluence of the Rhône and Saône. An inscription on one of the blocks found in 1957, priest of Rome and of Augustus, his son and grandson built this amphitheatre and its podium at their own expense''. This dates the building to 19 A.D. The figures who financed its construction belonged to an old Gallic family in Saintes which had held Roman citizenship since the Gallic Wars and also built the arch of Germanicus there. The curious formula "filii f(ilius)" perhaps derives from a wish to affirm the antiquity and continuity of the family's lineage, as on the arch of Germanicus, which names Rufus's ancestors.