CARNUTES, a Celtic people of central Gaul, between the Sequana (Seine) and the Liger (Loire). Their territory included the greater part of the modern departments of Eure-et-Loir, Loiret, Loir-et-Cher. The chief towns were Cenabum (Orleans) and Autricum (Chartres). In the time of Caesar they were de pendents of the Remi, but joined in the rebellion of Vercingetorix. As a punishment for the treacherous murder of some Roman merchants and one of Caesar's commissariat officers at Cenabum, the town was burnt and the inhabitants put to the sword or sold as slaves. They sent 12,000 men to relieve Alesia, but shared in the defeat of the Gallic army. Having attacked the Bituriges Cubi (see BITURIGES), who appealed to Caesar for assistance, they were forced to submit.
Under Augustus, the Carnutes were raised to the rank of civitas foederata, retaining their own institutions, and only bound to render military service to the emperor. Up to the 3rd century Autricum was the capital, but in 275 Aurelian changed Cenabum into a civitas and named it Aurelianum or Aurelianensis urbs (whence Orleans).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—A. Desjardins, Geographie historique de la Gaule, Bibliography.—A. Desjardins, Geographie historique de la Gaule, ii. (1876-93) ; article and bibliography in La Grande Encyclopedie; T. R. Holmes, Caesar's Conquest of Gaul (1899). For ancient authori ties see Caesar, Bell. Gall. v. 25, 29, vii. 8, II, 75, viii. 5, 31; Strabo iv. pp. 191-193.