Cenomani

This article is about the Cenomani in Gallia Celtica; for the Cenomani in Cisalpine Gaul, see Cenomani (Cisalpine Gaul).

The Cenomani or Aulerci Cenomani were a Celtic people, a branch of the Aulerci in Gallia Celtica, whose territory corresponded generally to Maine in the modern départment of Sarthe, west of the Carnutes between the Seine and the Loire. Their chief town was Vindinum or Suindinum (corrupted into 'Subdinnum'), afterwards Civitas Cenomanorum (whence Le Mans, and much later the Cenomanian geological age) and later Cenomani as in the Notitia Dignitatum, the original name of the town, as usual in the case of Gallic cities, being replaced by that of the people. According to Caesar (Bell. Gall. vii.75.3), they assisted Vercingetorix in the great rising (52 BC) with a force of 5000 men. Under Augustus they formed a civitas stipendiaria (Roman tributary town) of Gallia Lugdunensis, and in the 4th century part of Gallia Lugdunensis III.