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The Carnutes or Carnuti (Gaulish: 'the horned ones'), were a Gauls tribe dwelling in an extensive territory between the Sequana (Seine) and the Liger (Loire) rivers during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
The Gaulish ethnonym Carnutes literally means 'the horned ones', probably in reference to their combat helmets. It stems from the Gaulish language root carno- ('horn'), itself from Proto-Celtic * karno- ('horn, hoof'; cf. Middle Welsh carn 'hoof'). The name Carnutes is linguistically related to the Brittonic *Kornouii and the Welsh language Kernyw, designating the Cornwall region.
The city of Chartres, attested ca. 400 as Carnotum ( Carnotis ca. 650, Cartis in 930), is named after the Gallic tribe.
In the time of Caesar, the Carnutes were dependents of the Remi, who on one occasion interceded for them. In the winter of 58–57 BC, Caesar imposed a protectorate over the Carnutes and set up Tasgetius as his choice of king, picked from the ruling clan. Within three years, the Carnutes assassinated the puppet king. On 13 February 53 BC, the Carnutes of Cenabum massacred all the Roman merchants stationed in the town as well as one of Caesar's commissariat officers. The uprising became a general one throughout Gaul, under the leadership of Vercingetorix. Caesar burned Cenabum, where he had the men killed and women and children sold as slaves. The booty was distributed among his soldiers, an effective way of financing the conquest of Gaul. During the war that followed, the Carnutes sent 12,000 fighting men to relieve Alesia, but shared in the defeat of the Gallic army. Having attacked the Bituriges Cubi, who appealed to Caesar for assistance, they were forced to submit. Cenabum was left for years as a mass of ruins for example, with two Roman legions garrisoned there.
After they had been pacified, though not Romanized, under Augustus, the Carnutes, as one of the peoples of Gallia Lugdunensis, were raised to the rank of civitas socia or foederati. They retained their self-governing institutions, and minted coins; their only obligation was for the men to render military service to the emperor. Up to the 3rd century, Autricum (later Carnutes, whence Chartres) was the capital. In 275 Aurelian refounded Cenabum, ordaining it no longer a vicus but a civitas; he named it Aurelianum or Aurelianensis urbs (which eventually became Orléans).
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