Rhône

river in Switzerland and France

13 dated entries naming Rhône, drawn from 13 separate years between 218 BCE and 1711 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as Rhone, Rhône River in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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3rd century BC

218 BCEMay/June – Hannibal sets out with around 40,000 men and 50 elephants from New Carthage (Cartagena, Spain) to the north of Spain and then crosses the Pyrenees where his army meets with stiff resistance from the Pyrenean tribes. This opposition and the desertion of some of his Spanish troops diminishes his numbers by half, but he reaches the river Rhône facing little resistance from the tribes of southern Gaul.source

2nd century BC

109 BCEA Roman army under Marcus Junius Silanus is defeated by the Cimbri and Teutones near the river Rhône.source
105 BCEOctober 6 – The Battle of Arausio, where the Cimbri destroy two Roman armies on the Rhône, is the most severe defeat of Roman forces since the Battle of Cannae.source

5th century

458Battle of Arelate: Majorian defeats the Visigoths under King Theodoric II at Arles (Southern Gaul), near the Rhone River. Theodoric is forced to sign a peace treaty and becomes a foederatus (pl. foederati) of the Western Roman Empire.source

6th century

502Caesarius becomes bishop of Arles. His episcopal see, near the mouth of the Rhone River and close to Marseille, retains its ancient importance in the social and commercial life of Gaul for forty years.source
563Tauredunum event: A mountain landslide into the Rhone river destroys a fort and two villages, and creates a tsunami in Lake Geneva. The wave which reaches Lausanne is thirteen metres high, and eight metres high by the time it hits Geneva. Describing the event, Marius Aventicensis writes that the tsunami "devastated very old villages with their men and cattle, it even destroyed many sacred places", and swept away "the bridge in Geneva, windmills and men".source

8th century

752King Pepin III ("the Short") begins a Frankish military expedition down the Rhône Valley, and receives the submission of eastern Septimania (i.e. Nîmes, Melguelh, Agde and Béziers), after securing Count Ansemund's allegiance.source

11th century

1034Spring – Emperor Conrad II (the Elder) leads a German military expedition via the Rhone River into Burgundy, while two Italian armies led by Archbishop Aribert and Boniface III (margrave of Tuscany) head over the Alps and join with Count Humbert I at Great St. Bernard Pass.source

13th century

1226August 8 – Siege of Avignon: After two months without forcing the defenders of Avignon to surrender from lack of food, King Louis VIII gives the order to assault the walls of the city and Guy II, Count of Saint-Pol, begins the second phase of the siege, digging trenches facing the city walls – which are connected on both sides of the Rhône with pontoon bridges. Firing from the fortress towers, the defenders repulse the attack and Count Guy is killed by a catapulted stone on the same day.source

16th century

15564 December – Harsh winter causes the Rhône to freeze near Arles.source

17th century

1608Until March – "Great Winter": very severe weather. The Rhône is frozen.source
1624Winter – The Rhône and the vineyards of Languedoc freeze.source

18th century

1711October 11 – Panic kills 241 people in the stampede on the Guillottière bridge in France near Lyon. Revelers returning from a festival on the other side of the Rhône river are blocked by from crossing after a collision between a carriage and a cart. At least 25 fall off the bridge and into the river, while 216 are trampled by people behind them.source