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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 8105626, member: 128351&quot;][ATTACH=full]1409852[/ATTACH] </p><p>Tiberius caesar, dupondius minted in Lugdunum (Lyons, France). AE 27-28 mm, 12.43 g. 12-14 AD.</p><p>Obv.: TI CAESAR AVGVST F IMPERAT VII, laureate head right.</p><p>Rev. Front elevation of the Altar of Lugdunum, decorated with the <i>corona civica</i> between laurels, flanked by stylized male figures; to left and right, Victories holding wreaths on columns, facing one another; below, ROM ET AVG.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Altar of Lugdunum was the focal point of the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls built under Augustus for the imperial cult. Every year, on August 15, delegates from every Gallic city gathered in the amphitheatre nearby and in the sanctuary itself, to perform official ceremonies of the imperial cult and also to debate common pangallic topics. This monumental altar was then the well-known landmark of the Capital of the Three Gauls (Paris was a modest remote provincial town at this time, the city would only gain importance in the 4th c. and become the capital of the Frankish kingdom in the late 5th c.).</p><p><br /></p><p>Under Augustus the Lugdunum mint issued bronze coinage in the 5 Roman denominations : sestertius, dupondius, as, semis and quadrans. This coinage did not show the name of Lugdunum, it was intended to be a coinage for the whole Gallic territory, circulating as far as Britain. The coins were minted with the portrait of Augustus or of Tiberius, but all coins had the same reverse: the Altar and its two columns topped by victories.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nothing is left of it on the spot where it once stood, the Croix Rousse hill in Lyons, but several fragments have been discovered here and there in the city.&nbsp; A half gilded bronze laurel-wreath, probably from one of the two wreaths held by the victories on top of the columns, was found near there. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1409854[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">The half gilded bronze wreath, thought to be one of the two wreaths of the altar. In the same display, a gilded bronze statuette found in the river Saone, in Lyons : it reproduced one of the two victories on top of columns. </font></p><p><br /></p><p>There are also marble fragments of the podium, decorated with oak garlands, and even another marble fragment of a huge monumental inscription, very probably the RO[MAE ET AVGVSTO] dedication, reproduced on the coins&#039; reverse. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1409855[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1409856[/ATTACH] </p><p><font size="3">Fragment of the ROM ET AVG inscription of the altar.</font> </p><p><br /></p><p>The most visible remains are the columns themselves : they have been cut in two and reused as 4 columns in a medieval 12th c. church 2 km from there, Saint Martin d&#039;Ainay church. They were monolithic columns of grey granite (called Syenite) from quarries near Aswan, in Egypt. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1409858[/ATTACH] </p><p><font size="3">The four half-columns in the Saint Martin d&#039;Ainay church (12th c.). These columns made of Egyptian granite were originally the two monumental columns flanking the altar. </font></p><p><br /></p><p>The two victories on top of these monumental columns taken from Egypt symbolized the Actium victory of Augustus and his conquest of Egypt.</p><p><br /></p><p>Please post your Lugdunum altars![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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