Cenomani


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, afterwards Civitas Cenomanorum 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, they assisted Vercingetorix in the great rising with a force of 5000 men. Under Augustus they formed a civitas stipendiaria of Gallia Lugdunensis, and in the 4th century part of Gallia Lugdunensis III.

Name

They are mentioned as Aulercos and Aulercis, Cenomanis totidem by Caesar, as Aulerci.... Cenomani by Pliny, as Au̓lírkioioi̔ oi̔ Kenománnoi by Ptolemy, and as Ceromannos in the Notitia Dignitatum.
The meaning of the name Cenomani is uncertain. The prefix stems from Gaulish ceno-, which could have meant 'far, long', and the second element may derive from manos or from *meih₁-. Pierre-Yves Lambert has interpreted Aulerci as 'far from their track', stemming from the prefix au- attached to the Gaulish root lergo-, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *lorgo-.
The city of Le Mans, attested as Ceromannos ca. 400 AD, and the Maine region, attested as in Cinomanico in the 6th c. AD, are named after the Gallic tribe.

Cisalpine Cenomani

There was another people called Cenomani that held extensive territory in Cisalpine Gaul; however, there is disagreement whether they are one and the same people. The orthography and the quantity of the penultimate vowel of Cenomani have given rise to discussion. According to Arbois de Jubainville, the Cenomni of Italy are not identical with the Cehomni of Gaul. In the case of the latter, the survival of the syllable man in "Le Mans" is due to the stress laid on the vowel; had the vowel been short and unaccented, it would have disappeared. In Italy, Cenomani is the name of a people; in Gaul, merely a surname of the Aulerci. William Smith adopts the difference, placing the peoples in two separate articles in his Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. On the other hand, if the tradition recorded by Cato is true, that the Cenomani formed a settlement near Massilia, among the Volcae, this could indicate a route that the Cenomani took to Cisalpine Gaul in Italy. According to Livy, the Cenomani of Cisalpine Gaul arrived after the expedition of Bellovesus, led by Helitovius, and are credited with the foundation of Brixia, or Brescia, and Verona.