Battle of Lugdunum The Battle of Lugdunum , also called the Battle of Lyon , was fought on 19 February 197 at Lugdunum ( modern Lyon , France ) , between the armies of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and of the Roman usurper Clodius Albinus . Severus ' victory finally established him as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire . This battle is said to be the largest , most hard fought and bloodiest of all clashes between Roman forces . The historian Cassius Dio places the number involved as 300 , 000 , or 150 , 000 on either side of the battle . This figure has been disputed , as this is approximately three - quarters of the total number of soldiers present throughout the Roman Empire at that time . However , it is widely accepted that the total number of soldiers and support personnel involved exceeded 100 , 000 , and could well have come close to the 150 , 000 figure Dio gives . Background . After the murder of Emperor Pertinax ( 193 ) , a struggle began for the succession to the throne , the so - called Year of the Five Emperors . The new self - proclaimed Emperor in Rome , Didius Julianus , had to face the commander of the Pannonian legions , Septimius Severus . Before moving on Rome , Severus made an alliance with the powerful commander of the Britannia legions , Clodius Albinus , recognizing him as Caesar . After eliminating Didius ( 193 ) and then defeating the governor of Syria , Pescennius Niger ( 194 ) , a successful campaign in the East ( 195 ) was launched . Severus then tried to legitimize his power , connecting himself with Marcus Aurelius , and raising his own son to the rank of Caesar . This last act broke Severus ' alliance with Albinus , who was declared a public enemy by the Senate . In 196 , after being hailed as emperor by his troops , Clodius Albinus took 40 , 000 men in three legions from Britannia to Gaul . After gathering up additional forces , he set up headquarters at Lugdunum . He was joined there by Lucius Novius Rufus , the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis , and by the Legio VII " Gemina " under his command . But Severus had the powerful Danubian and German legions on his side . To try to minimise this advantage and possibly win their support , Albinus struck first against the German forces under Virius Lupus . He defeated them but not decisively enough to challenge their allegiance to Severus . Albinus then considered invading Italy , but Severus had prepared for this by reinforcing the garrisons of the Alpine passes . Not wishing to risk the losses or the delay that forcing the passes would cause , Albinus was deterred . In the winter of 196 – 197 , Severus gathered his forces along the Danube and marched into Gaul , where , much to his surprise , he found Albinus ' forces were about the same strength as his own . The two armies first clashed at " Tinurtium " ( Tournus ) , where Severus had the better day but was unable to obtain the decisive victory he needed . The battle . Albinus ' army fell back to Lugdunum , Severus followed , and on February 19 , 197 the massive and ultimately decisive battle finally commenced . The exact details are as vague as the exact numbers involved . However , we do know both sides were roughly evenly matched and it was therefore a bloody and drawn out affair lasting over two days ( it was rare for battles of this time to last longer than a few hours ) . The tide shifted many times during the course of the battle , with the outcome hanging in the balance . It seems Severus had the edge in cavalry which swung the battle in his favor for the final time . Exhausted and bloodied , Albinus ' army was crushed . Aftermath . Albinus ' exact fate is unclear . He fled into Lugdunum where he either , in the Roman tradition , " ran upon his sword " after finding all escape routes cut , or he was finished off by an assassin ' s blade . Severus had Albinus ' body stripped and beheaded . He rode over the headless corpse with his horse in front of his victorious troops . The head he sent back to Rome as a warning along with the heads of Albinus ' family . In Lugdunum itself , Septimius remodeled the Imperial cult sanctuary to celebrate his dominance and humiliate Albinus ' provincial supporters . According to Duncan Fishwick , the reformed Imperial rites at Lugdunum resembled those due a master from his slaves . Also as a result of this battle , Roman forces in Britannia were severely weakened , which would lead to incursions , uprisings and a withdrawal of Rome from the Antonine Wall south to Hadrian ' s Wall . It was while quelling one of these uprisings , Severus himself would die near present day York on February 4 , 211 , only weeks short of the 14th anniversary of his victory at Lugdunum .