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Cenabum, Gaul (sometimes written Cenabaum or Genabum) was the name of the capital city of the Carnutes, located near the present French city of Orléans. Cenabum was an oppidum and a thriving commercial town on the Loire river.
In 52 BC, during the Gallic Wars, the town was taken by Roman general Julius Caesar and integrated into the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis. Acts of resistance from the locals who refused to submit to Roman law were severely repressed and resulted in several massacres and the near-total destruction of the town.
In the 3rd century, emperor Aurelian visited Cenabum and decided to have it rebuilt (273-274), and named it after himself: Urbs Aurelianorum . In the 9th century, it took the name Aurelianum, the name later evolved into Orléans."Orléans", in Larousse [1]
In 498, the city was conquered by Germanic peoples invaders, the Salian Franks and brought into the kingdom of Merovingian king Clovis I.
It was Cenabum that gave the signal for the Gallic revolt, first led by Cotuatos, then Conconnetodumnos and eventually Vercingetorix. In 53 BC, the Roman merchants who had established themselves at Cenabum, the overseer Gaius Fufius Cita whom Caesar had installed to control commerce and to ensure his legions' grain supply, and some Roman troops garrisoning the town were all massacred or thrown into the Loire by the Carnutes who had stormed the city. De Bello Gallico, Book 7, Chapter 3 This uprising triggered Caesar's seventh Gallic campaign.
In 52 BC, Caesar marched back into Gaul and reached Sens. His Roman legions reached Cenabum but they did not even need to besiege it. On his approach, its population attempted to flee by crossing the bridge linking the two banks of the Loire ; whilst the people tried to cross the narrow wooden bridge, the Romans scaled the ramparts. The remaining inhabitants were captured and the town was pillaged and burned down. De Bello Gallico, book 7, chapter 11 The Gutuater (considered to be a Carnuti representative whose role is thought to be linked to 'invocation' by modern historians) was found guilty of the uprising and executed.
Before leaving Cenabum, Caesar put Gaius Trebonius in charge of the city and left him two Roman legions to keep the ruined city under Roman control. The town and its regions were integrated into the Roman province of Gallia Lugdunensis.
Around 260 AD, Cenabum was pillaged first by the Alemanni and then by other Germanic peoples after them. Cenabum stayed a ruin until 273 AD, when the 38th Roman emperor Aurelian visited the town.
Around 273 AD, in an effort to prevent the barbarian incursions from going further into Gaul, emperor Aurelian rebuilds the town from the ground up. He detaches it from the Carnutes' territories and gives this new city the name Urbs Aurelianorum ( i.e. city of the Aurelii) and its inhabitants are Civitas Aurelianorum. New ramparts are raised, a dry moat now surrounds the city. To the south, the ramparts are built closest to the riverside, so as to prevent attacks from the Loire.
In 408 AD, the Vandals, along with the Alans, cross the Loire. One of their groups, led by Goar, accepts to join the Romans. Aetius settles on the Loire and in Orléans around 440 AD. According to Constantius of Lyon, a Gallic scholar, Aetius did so to punish a local uprising. The Alans are seen as unruly by the locals, and their settling in the region often results in land confiscation and eviction of the local people. Goar settles in Aurelianorum itself, while the rest of his people settle in the rest of the region (i.e. modern Orléanais). Indeed, numerous archeological finds linked to the Alans have been found in the northern part of the region and in northern France: Allaines, Allainville, Alaincourt.
In 451 AD, king and chieftain of the Hunnic Empire Attila laid siege to Aurelianorum and was defeated there by an alliance between Aetius, Merovech and Theodoric I. In the same year, the king of the Alans still resided in Aurelianorum, known then as Sangiban. Under his command, the Alans join forces with Aetius in opposing Attila and his conquest of Gaul, and they take part in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. However, according to ancient historian Jordanes, Sangiban initially tried to betray the Romans and surrender Aurelianorum to Attila, but the veracity of this intention is still disputed. The Fall of the Roman Empire, beginning in 476 AD, coincided with a time of economic crisis and the christianization of the local population. Saint Euverte d'Orléans was one of the first bishops of the city.
The independence of the Romans of Aurelianorum ended in 498 AD, when the city was conquered by the Germanic people of the Salian Franks and eventually brought into the kingdom of Clovis I, king of the Franks, heir to the Merovingian dynasty.
In 511 AD, the First Council of Orléans took place, summoning 32 bishops from across Gaul, to establish a strong relationship between Merovingian rule and the (Roman) Catholic episcopate. The city had no import in Gallic conciliar affairs, but over the Merovingian period, it was to become a prominent meeting place for national church councils.
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