GENABUM
GENABUM (
Κἡναβον:
Orléans), a city of the Carnutes, a Celtic people. Ptolemy (
2.8.13) places the Carnutae along the
Seine; and he names two cities in their country, Autricum and Cenabum.
The latitude in which he places Cenabum is pretty near the truth: and he places Autricum (
Chartres) correctly, both north and west of
Orleans. Strabo (p. 191) states, that Genabum (
Γήναβον) is on the Liger (
Loire), about half way between the source and the outlet, or, perhaps, about the middle of the navigable part; a description which agrees very well with the position of
Orleans. He calls it the emporium of the Carnutes. The Roman Itineraries fix the position of Genabum at
Orléans. One road runs from Nevirnum (
Nevers), on the east side of the
Loire, to Genabum, and thence direct to Lutetia.
The distance from Genabum to Lutetia does not quite agree in the Table and in the Antonine Itin.; but both are near enough to show that, if we assume Lutetia to be
Paris, Genabum must be
Orleans.
Caesar (
Caes. Gal. 7.3) mentions Genabum as a town of the Carnutes, in which the great insurrection began in B.C. 52.
He describes it (
B. G. 7.11) as situated on the
Loire. The true reading in the passage is--“oppidum Genabum pons fluminis Ligeris contingebat” (not “continebat.” ) The narrative of Caesar shows that the town was on the north side of the
Loire, as
Orléns is: and there was a bridge from it to the south side. Caesar broke into Genabum (B.C. 52) after the insurrection there, set it on fire, and crossed the
Loire to besiege Avaricum. [
AVARICUM] In his winter campaign against the Carnutes in the next year, he quartered his men amidst the ruins of the town and in the huts.
Under the later empire this town had the name of Aureliani, of which word the name
Orléans is a corruption.
The name “Civitas Aurelianorum” occurs in the Notitia Imp., and
Orléans was then the chief town of a diocese, distinct from that of the Carnutes. Aimoin, a writer of the sixth century, (quoted by Walckenaer), distinctly states that “Genabus,” as he calls it, is Aureliani. Walckenaer also says that a faubourg of
Orleans “has long had the name of
Génabie.” There are some traces of the Roman walls of
Orléans, which may have been built as late as the time of the emperor Aurelian,
[p. 1.987]from whom it is conjectured that the place took its new name.
[
G.L]
