
The Roman Empire ca. 120 AD, with the province of Gallia Lugdunensis highlighted.
'Gallia Lugdunensis' was a
province of the
Roman Empire in what is now the modern country of
France, part of the
Celtic nation of
Gaul. It is named after its capital
Lugdunum (today's
Lyon), possibly Roman Europe's major city west of Italy, and a major imperial mint. Outside Lugdunnum was the Condate Altar, where representatives of the Three Gauls met to celebrate the cult of ''Rome and Augustus''. Its original extent was from the rivers
Seine and
Marne in the north-east, which formed the boundary with
Gallia Belgica, to the river
Garonne in the south-west, which formed the border with
Gallia Aquitania. Under
Augustus, Gallia Lugdunensis was reduced in size. The portion between the river
Loire and the Garonne was given to Gallia Aquitania, and central-eastern portions were given to the new province of
Germania Superior. The map shows the extent after these reductions. It was an imperial province, deemed important enough to be governed by an
imperial legate. Since
Diocletian's
Tetrarchy (296), it was the major province of a diocese confusingly called
Galliae ('the Gaul [province]s'), to which further only the Helvetic, Belgian (both also Celtic) and German provinces belonged; with the dioceses of
Viennensis (the southern provinces of Gaul),
Britanniae (also Celtic) and
Hispaniae (the whole Celtiberian peninsula) this formed the praetorian prefecture also called Galliae, subordinate to the western emperor.
Fiction
The fictional
unconquered village from the French
comic book Asterix the Gaul is located here, on an Aremorican peninsula (modern
Bretagne).
See also
★
Gaul
★
Lyonesse