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The Carnutes are a people of Celtic Gaul. Chartres was the capital of the Gallic Carnutes tribe from which it took its name Carnutum.
The Carnutes occupied a vast province in the south-west of the Paris Basin, with two main towns, Chartres - Latin *Autricum - and Orléans - Cenabum. Farmers exploiting the rich plateau of Beauce, traders taking advantage of the double outlet of the Loire to the south and the Eure to the north, the Carnutes are famous above all for their link, real or presumed, to the Gallic religion. It is in a locus consecrates, in the mythical "carnute forest", that the druids would have held their annual meeting; It was also in carnut country that Caesar captured and put to death the mysterious Gutuater. But this is an area in which it is very difficult to separate legends and history.
The name of the Carnutes
The Carnutes found in Gaul in the time of Caesar are an ancient people - or so their name is. Livy mentions Carnutes among the Gallic peoples who, led by the semi-legendary Bellovèse, emigrated to Italy during the reign of Tarquin the Elder (6th century BC)
Can we compare these Carnutes with the Carni cited by the same Livy as settled in the Tagliamento valley, in the north-east of Veneto, and who would have given their name to a province (Carniola) and to the surrounding mountains (the Carnic Alps)?
These mountain Celts give substance to the most common etymological hypothesis:the name of the Carnutes would be based on a Celtic *karno:irl. carn, gael. cairn, pile of stones, rock mound. This form - or a similar form - is attested in the toponymy of the Chartrain country.
Although, in the minds of many, it still evokes the old proximity of the Celts and the megaliths, it is today the most reasonable explanation, because philologically the most satisfactory. Unless it refers to the temperament or hardiness of the tribe. This does not guarantee its accuracy.
The connection Carnutes - Cernunnos by a root which would mean "horns" seems today as abandoned as the horned helmets.
A more recent hypothesis traces back to a root i-e *ker / kor, on which the Celtic name of the dogwood would depend and which would put, through the intermediary of a tree-totem, our Carnutes in relation with the Armorican and insular Cornwall. It appeals to all those who would like to bring the Carnutes closer to a hard Celtic core, mythically located in Brittany. But we have the right to be skeptical.
Nothing is certain, in the end, as to the meaning of this name.
The Carnut territory and its inhabitants
At the end of independent Gaul, the Carnutes occupied a very vast territory which covered:
* all of the current department of Eure-et-Loir as far as the Seine, bordering on the cities of the Aulercan confederation (Éburovices to the north and Cénomans to the west);
* half of the department of Yvelines, bordering on the east the cities of Sénons, Parisis and Aedui;
* almost all of Loir-et-Cher and Loiret as far as the small town of Turones to the west and to the south, beyond the Sauldre, the powerful town of Bituriges.
As such, these Carnutes may already represent a confederation of older peoples, such as the Durocasses who, settled in the loop of the Eure, seem to be subservient to them.
The Carnutes are one of the most famous peoples of Celtic Gaul. They do not appear to be among the most powerful. Although they undoubtedly exploit the minerals of the Perche, they are very far from the industrial capacity of the Aedui and their craftsmanship itself has not left any exceptional traces.
Their main wealth is certainly in the Beauce farm, largely cleared since the Neolithic era and which already produces surplus cereals (wheat, rye, buckwheat, oats, barley), fueling an active and probably profitable trade, as evidenced by abundant numismatics.
Gold staters are known from the end of the 2nd century and, in a more original way, subdivisions of the stater. A whole series of coins, associating the eagle and the serpent, are characteristic of the Carnutes; their right often bears a head more or less slavishly imitated from the Denarius of Titus minted in Rome in 79 BC. There is also abundant regional gossip. This coinage continues actively by diversifying after the conquest, in particular in the form of the famous Pixtilos. - see Gallic numismatics.
Trade should not have been limited to the export of cereals:there was certainly a terrestrial transit of goods between Eure and Loire and river communications with the countries of the Atlantic coast. But if the carnut richness is beyond doubt, one cannot however speak of a “carnut gold” as one speaks of an “Arverne gold”.
From a political and military point of view, Caesar - who resents them and hates them just like their neighbors Senones - gives us, all things considered, the impression of a relatively unorganized people. But it is true that in front of a single and biased source, impressions can be misleading.
Main cities
The geographers of Antiquity give them two cities:Autricum (Ἀύτρικον, in the Geography of Ptolemy, II, 1) and, on the loop of the Loire, Cenabum, (Κήναβον, in the Geography of Strabo, V, 2, 3 ) which describes it as the emporium of the Carnutes (τὸ τῶν Καρνούντον ἑμπόριον).
Autricum, on the site of the present city of Chartres, is generally considered the capital of the Carnutes.
Cenabum, on the site of the current city of Orléans, was the port of the Carnutes on the Loire, and the commercial outlet for cereals from Beauce. It also controlled a bridge over the Loire, of considerable economic and strategic importance.
Structure of the terroir
Caesar tells us that the Carnutes owned many strongholds and villages. The local Celtic toponymy is abundant, but difficult to date and provides few useful elements for understanding the structure of the land.
You can identify a few "strongholds" in -dunum (See article Dun (fortress):Châteaudun, perhaps Meung-sur-Loire (*Magdunum) and surely Caesar's Oppidum Noviodunum, most likely placed at Neung-sur-Beuvron, on the borders of the biturige city; two or three markets, including Noviomagus in Nogent-le-Roi (on a road to Cenoman country), as well as in Nouan-le-Fuzelier and Nouan-sur-Loire (which may be later)... An establishment Gaulois existed to the north, at the confluence of the Eure and the Blaise, but must be referred to the Durocasses.
As regards the religious sites of the Carnute period, there is evidence some local sanctuaries which survived after the Roman conquest:those of Allauna in Allonnes, of Orgos in Logron, perhaps of Acionna in Orléans... The finds The spectacular sites of Neuvy-en-Sullias and Vienne-en-Val belong to the Gallo-Roman era, despite the cannibalistic monster of Vienne.
The structure of the finages beaucerons has been erased by the Gallo-Roman occupation, as well as most of the communications network. However, the "Gué-de-Longroi" (canton of Auneau), a Latin-Celtic composite form (longum + rito, ford), undoubtedly attests to the passage of an old path from Chartres to the Parisis, which has no not been covered by a Roman road.
The rivers almost all have pre-Celtic names.
The Carnutes in the Gallic Wars
During the first two years of the "Gallic Wars", the Carnutes did not make people talk about them. In 57-56, it was in Carnut country that Caesar sent his legions to take up their winter quarters, which indicates that the country was considered safe. Perhaps the Carnutes (or at least their aristocracy) who traded with the Romans thought they were taking advantage of the situation.
The failure of the protectorate
If we follow Caesar, their city is then a kind of "oligarchic republic" taking over from a previous royalty. We must certainly be wary:this schema is the usual tropism of all Roman historiography and justifies the policy of the proconsul.
Because Caesar then tried to subject the Carnutes (as well as the Senons) to a regime of protectorate which must not be unrelated to the economic importance recognized to their countries. He thus promotes the accession to power of a "king", a certain Tasgetios, "of very high birth and whose ancestors had reigned over their city".
We have a trace of Tasgetios apart from Caesar because he had time to issue a coin:it bears his name on the reverse around a winged chariot, and on the obverse a mysterious word:ELKESOOVIX, in which we wanted to see either the name or the title of an ancestor.
But Tasgetios is not very popular. As early as the fall of 54, Caesar reported that he had been assassinated by his enemies "openly supported by a large number of his fellow citizens". The Carnutes do not seem to replace him:apparently they do without a king.
Carnutes and Sénons
The revolt of the Belgians has repercussions south of the Seine. The Senones are agitated in their turn and it is perhaps only from this moment that they closely approach the Carnutes. They want to subject their false king, Cavarinos, to the fate of Tasgetios, but Cavarinos succeeds in fleeing and taking refuge with Caesar. As soon as the legions pretend to intervene, the Senones, through their Aedui "protectors", send an embassy to obtain the pardon of the proconsul who demands a hundred hostages. The Carnutes hasten in turn to send ambassadors and hostages through the Remi, allies of Rome and who would also be their "protectors" (but what meaning could this "protection" have before the Roman intervention in Gaul?). Caesar, apparently, forgives, but the following year, he convenes an assembly of Gallic cities at Durocortorum in the Reme country; he had the Sénon Acco "leader of the conspiracy of the Sénons and the Carnutes" tried there and he was executed "Roman style", that is to say beaten with rods until he was in a coma, then finished off by decapitation. Caesar returns to Italy, leaving Plancus to winter with the Carnutes to investigate the murder of Tasgetios.
The two massacres of Cenabum
In 52, the climate changes. The horrific death of Acco - who appears to have been a leader respected even beyond his people - played a role in mobilizing the Gauls against Caesar.
The leaders assemble "in isolated places in the forest. Should this memorable meeting in the history of the Gauls be related to the annual meeting of the Druids? It has been discussed for a long time and the problem is far from being solved. The Carnutes in any case proclaim there in the general enthusiasm that "no danger will stop them in the fight for the common salvation and that they will be the first to take up arms".
"On the appointed day, the Carnutes led by Cotuatus and Conconnetodumnus, two men ready for anything, rush into Genabum and massacre the Roman citizens there". C. Fufius Cita, Caesar's confidante, is among the victims. By massacring, on February 13, 52, these "Roman citizens", as Caesar insists, it is clear that the Carnutes have committed the irreparable.
Genabum's helping hand, immediately echoed among the neighboring peoples, gave the signal for a general insurrection under the leadership of Vercingetorix. César recrosses the Alps. Having reached the Senon country by forced march, he easily reduced Vellanodunum (perhaps Montargis, or rather Château-Landon), while the Carnutes, who believed they had time, prepared to send troops to defend Genabum. Caesar arrives there before them, the emporium is looted and burned, the Gallic population who tried to cross the Loire overnight is massacred or reduced to slavery. Then, on the Bituriges road, the Romans took Noviodunum (Neung-sur-Beuvron) whose inhabitants (or garrison) surrendered without excessive heroism.
The defeat of the Carnutes
The Carnutes, according to Caesar, would have provided a contingent of 12,000 men - a figure certainly very excessive, as is the rule when Caesar estimates the Gallic workforce - who "left for Alesia, joyful and full of confidence".
After the surrender of Vercingetorix, the cities did not disarm. The Carnutes, for obscure reasons, have trouble with their biturige neighbors who are demanding justice from César in Bibracte. Two legions were then quartered in Genabum in ruins, from where they launched bloody commando operations against the Carnutes who had dispersed, "crushed by the rigor of winter and by fear, driven from their roofs, not daring linger nowhere”. Armed survivors take refuge among neighboring peoples. Some of them undoubtedly took part in the fruitless revolt of the andecave Dumnacos in Picton country. Following this campaign, during the summer of 51, C. Fabius returned to the Carnutes:“The Carnutes who, so often tried, had never spoken of peace, offered hostages and submitted”.
Gutuater
But Caesar who, while forgiving forgets nothing, comes himself to Genabum to be delivered "the first person responsible for their crime, the warmonger". It is the famous Gutuatus, Gutuatrus or Gutruatus:the manuscripts diverge on the name of the one who bears the title of Gutuater, a character so considerable that Caesar hesitates to put him to death. However, under the pressure "of the enormous crowd of soldiers who made him responsible for all the dangers run, for all the losses suffered", he is like Acco once, beaten to death and beheaded.
With this pontiff who appears on stage only to die, the Carnutes disappear from history. There will never be any question of them during later Gallic movements.