CENOMANI
Eth.
CENOMANI a Gallic nation of Celtica whom Caesar (7.75) names Aulerci Cenomani [
AULERCI].
The position of the several peoples named Aulerci was west of the Carnutes, and between the
Seine and the
Loire. The Cenomani occupied part of the old diocese of
Mans; and the town of
Mans in the department of
La Sarthe is on the site of the place called Cenomani in the Notitia, from the name of the people.
As usual in the case of Gallic chief cities, the name of the people, Cenomani, prevailed in the later empire over that of the original name of the town, which however appears in the Table as Subdinnum. The Table gives two roads on which this name occurs: one passes from Caesarodunum (
Tours) through Subdinnum to Alauna (
Alleaume à Valognes); and the other runs from Subdinnum to Mitricum, that is, Autricum (
Chartres), and to Durocassio (
Dreux). Ptolemy (
2.8) names the chief city of the Cenomani, Vindinum, which Valesius proposes that we should alter to Suindinum, a name which is nearer to that of the Table.
The Cenomani joined in the great rising against Caesar in B.C. 52, under Vercingetorix.
The contingent that they sent to the siege of Alesia was five thousand men (
B. G. 7.75).
This was one of the migratory Gallic tribes which at an early period crossed into Italy; and if the tradition recorded by Cato (
Plin. Nat. 3.19. s. 23) is true, that they formed a settlement near Massilia (
Marseille), among the Volcae, this may indicate the route that the Cenomani took to Italy.
[
G.L]
