The Roman city now called Lyon was known as Lugdunum during the imperial period.
Lugdunum was founded in 43 BCE by Lucius Munatius Plancus, shortly after the Roman conquest of the region. It stood at the meeting point of the Rhône and Saône rivers, a position that made it an important commercial and administrative center in Gaul.
The settlement became the capital of Gallia Lugdunensis, one of the major provinces of Roman Gaul. Its location also connected routes leading toward the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast, the Rhine frontier, and the Alps. Roman Lyon contained monumental public buildings, temples, theaters, and an amphitheater.
Lugdunum is sometimes confused with Lutetia, the Roman name for the settlement that developed into Paris. Mediolanum, another common distractor, was the Roman name for Milan. Lyon’s modern name developed from the ancient settlement’s later forms.