Information AboutCarnutes |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CARNUTES | |
| ancient roman enemies | |
| tribes of ancient gaul | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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in the 1st century BC, showing the relative positions of the Celtic tribes.]] In the 1st century BCE, the Carnutes minted coins, usually struck with dies, but sometimes cast in an alloy of high tin content called "potin." Their coinage turns up in hoards well outside their home territories, in some cases so widely distributed in the finds that the place of coinage is not secure. The . In the time of Caesar the carnutes were dependents of the Remi , who on one occasion interceded for them. In the winter of 58 - 57 BCE, Caesar imposed a protectorate over the Carnutes and set up his choice of king, Tasgetius, picked from the ruling clan. Within three years, the Carnutes had assassinated the puppet king. On February 13 , 53 BCE the Carnutes of Cenabum massacred all the Roman merchants stationed in the town as well as one of Caesar's commissariat officers. The uprising was swiftly a general one throughout Gaul, under the leadership of Vercingetorix . Cenabum was burnt by Caesar, the men put to the sword and women and children sold as slaves, and the booty distributed among his soldiers, an effective way of financing the conquest of Gaul. During the war that followed, the Carnutes were able to send 12,000 fighting men to relieve Alesia , but shared in the defeat of the Gallic army. Having attacked the Bituriges Cubi , who appealed to Caesar for assistance, they were forced to submit. Cenabum, however, remained a mass of ruins garrisoned by two Roman legions for years. After they had been pacified, though not Romanized, under Augustus, the Carnutes, as one of the peoples of Gallia Lugdunensis , were raised to the rank of ''civitas soda'' or '' Foederati '', retaining their own self-governing institutions, continuing to mint coins, and only bound to render military service to the emperor. Up to the 3rd century Autricum (later Carnutes, whence Chartres) was the capital, but in 275 Aurelian refounded Cenabum ordaining it no longer a vicus but a '' Civitas '' and named it ''Aurelianum'' or ''Aurelianensis urbs'' (thus eventually "Orleans"). See Livy , v.34; Julius Caesar , ''Belli Gall.'' v. 25, 29, vii. 8, II, 75, viii. 5, 31 (see under "cenabuns); Strabo ''Geographia'' iv.2 - 3; Ptolemy ''Geographia,'' ii.8. EXTERNAL LINKS
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