SENONES, a Celtic people of Gallia Celtica, who in Caesar's time inhabited the district which now includes the departments of Seine-et-Marne, Loiret, and Yonne. From 53-51 B.c. they were engaged in hostilities with Caesar. In 51 B.C. a Senonian named Drappes threatened the Provincia, but was captured and starved himself to death. From this time the Gallic Senones disappear from history. In later times they were included in Gallia Lugudunensis. Their chief town was Agedincum (later Senones, whence Sens).
A branch of the Senones, called Eh/OWES, Senones, by Polybius, crossed the Alps about 400 B.C. and settled on the east coast of Italy from Ariminum to Ancona, in the so-called ages Gallicus, and founded the town of Sena. In 391 B.C. they invaded Etruria and besieged Clusium. The Clusines appealed to Rome, whose intervention led to war, the defeat of the Romans at the Allia (July 18, 390 B.c.) and the capture of Rome. For ioo years the Senores were at war with Rome, but were finally subdued and expelled (283 B.c.) by P. Cornelius Dolabella. Nothing more was heard of them in Italy.
For ancient authorities, see A. Holden, Altceltischer Sprachschatz, (1904) ; for the Gallic Senones, see T. R. Holmes, Caesar's Conquest of Gaul (1899) ; for the subjugation of the Cisalpine Senones by the Romans, see T. Mommsen, History of Rome (Eng. trans.), bk. ii. ch. vii.
It was not finally subdued by the Romans till after the defeat of Vercingetorix. On the division of Gaul into 17 provinces under the emperor Valens, Agedincum became the metropolis of the 4th Lugdunensis. Theatres, circuses, amphitheatres, triumphal arches and aqueducts were all built in the town by the Romans. It was the meeting-point of six great highways. The inhabitants, converted to Christianity by the martyrs Savinian and Potentian, held out against the Alamanni and the Franks in 356, against the Saracens in 731 or 738, and finally against the Normans in 886. The early feudal government of Sens was by counts, heredi tary in the middle of the loth century, and their quarrels with the archbishops, etc., were serious until, in 1055, the countship was united to the royal domain. Several councils were held at Sens, notably that of I140, at which St. Bernard and Abelard met. The
burgesses in the middle of the 12th century formed themselves into a commune which carried on war against the clergy. This was suppressed by Louis VIII., and restored by Philip Augustus. Sens massacred the Protestants in 1562, and it was one of the first towns to join the League. Henry IV. entered it in 1594, and deprived the town of its privileges. In 1622 Paris, hitherto suffra gan to Sens, was made an archbishopric, and the bishoprics of Chartres, Orleans and Meaux were transferred to the new juris diction. In 1791 the archbishopric was reduced to a bishopric of the department of Yonne. Suppressed in i8oi, the see was restored in 1817 with the rank of archbishopric. The town was occupied by the Allies in 1814 and by the Germans in 1870-71.
Sens stands on the right bank of, and on an island in, the Yonne near its confluence with the Vanne. The cathedral of St. Etienne (114o-16th century), one of the earliest Gothic buildings in France, is additionally interesting because the architecture of its choir influenced through the architect, William of Sens, that of the choir of Canterbury cathedral. The west front is pierced by three portals; that in the middle has good sculptures, representing the parable of the virgins and the story of St. Stephen. The right-hand portal contains remarkable statuettes of the prophets.
To the south of the cathedral are the 13th century official build ings, restored by Viollet-le-Duc, on the first story of which is the synod hall, vaulted with stone and lighted by beautiful grisaille windows. A Renaissance structure connects the buildings with the archiepiscopal palace, of the same period. The church of St. Savinian, the foundation of which dates from the 3rd century, has a Romanesque crypt. The museum of Sens contains some precious mss., notably a famous missal with ivory covers, and a collection of sculptured stones from the old Roman fortifications, them selves built from the ruins of public monuments at the beginning of the barbarian invasions. Sens is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has a tribunal of commerce, a chamber of commerce and a board of trade arbitrators. Among the industries are flour-milling, tan ning and the manufacture of iron goods, boots and shoes, brushes, chemicals and cutlery; there is trade in wine, grain, wood, coal and wool, shared by the port on the Yonne.