Editing Lugdunum (section)

==Founding of the Roman city==
Roman colonization of Lugdunum began during the [[War of Mutina]], one of the conflicts that followed the [[assassination of Julius Caesar]] in 44&nbsp;BC. According to the historian [[Cassius Dio]], in 43&nbsp;BC the [[Roman Senate]] ordered [[Lucius Munatius Plancus|Munatius Plancus]] and [[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (triumvir)|Lepidus]], governors of central and [[Transalpine Gaul]] respectively, to found a city for a group of Roman refugees who had been expelled from [[Vienne, Isere|Vienne]] (a town about {{convert|30|km|mi|-1|abbr=in|disp=or}} to the south) by the [[Allobroges]] and were encamped at the confluence of the Saône and Rhône rivers. Dio Cassius says this was to keep them from joining [[Mark Antony]] and bringing their armies into the developing conflict.<ref name=":0" /> [[Epigraphic]] evidence suggests Munatius Plancus was the principal founder of Lugdunum.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Lugdunum seems to have had a population of several thousand at the time of the Roman foundation. The citizens were administratively assigned to the [[Galerian tribe]]. The aqueduct of the [[:fr:Aqueduc des monts d'Or|Monts d'Or]], completed around 20&nbsp;BC, was the first of at least four [[Roman aqueduct|aqueducts]] supplying water to the city.

Within 50 years Lugdunum increased greatly in size and importance, becoming the administrative centre of Roman [[Gaul]] and [[Germany]]. By the end of the reign of [[Augustus]], [[Strabo]] described Lugdunum as the junction of four major roads (the ''[[Via Agrippa]]''): south to [[Narbonensis]], [[Massilia]] and [[Italy]], north to the [[Rhine river]] and Germany, northwest to the sea (the [[English Channel]]), and west to [[Aquitania]].

The proximity to the frontier with Germany made Lugdunum strategically important for the next four centuries, as a staging ground for further Roman expansion into Germany, as well as the ''de facto'' capital city and administrative centre of the Gallic provinces. Its large and cosmopolitan population made it the commercial and financial heart of the northwestern provinces as well.

Lugdunum became an imperial [[Coin mints|mint]] during the reign of [[Augustus]], in 15&nbsp;BC, replacing mints in [[Hispania]]. It was probably chosen because of its convenient location between sources of silver and gold in Hispania and the legions on the [[Rhine]] and [[Danube]]. After 12&nbsp;BC, it was the sole mint producing gold and silver coinage for the whole Roman Empire, a position it retained until [[Nero]] moved production back to Rome in 64&nbsp;AD.<ref name="Cambridge University Press">{{cite book |last1=Duncan-Jones |first1=Richard |title=Money and government in the Roman empire |date=1994 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-44192-6 |pages=99–100}}</ref><ref name="Oxford University Press">{{cite book |last1=Wolters|editor1-last=Metcalf |editor1-first=William E. |chapter=The Julio-Claudians|title=The Oxford handbook of Greek and Roman coinage |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-530574-6 |pages=336–340}}</ref>