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Deus Nemausus is often said to have been the Celtic mythology patron god of Nemausus (Nîmes). The god does not seem to have been worshipped outside this locality. The city certainly derives its name from Nemausus, which was perhaps the sacred wood in which the Celts tribe of the Volcae Arecomici (who of their own accord surrendered to the Roman Republic in 121 BC) held their assemblies. Or perhaps it was the local Celtic spirit guardian of the spring that originally provided all water for the settlement, as many modern sources suggest. Or perhaps Stephanus of Byzantium was correct in stating in his geographical dictionary that Nemausos, the city of Gaul, took its name from the Heracleidae (or son of Heracles) Nemausios.
An important healing-spring sanctuary existed in the town; it was established in some form at least as early as the early Iron Age but was expanded after the Romans colonised the region in the late 2nd century BC, when there was active Roman encouragement of the cult. Another set of local spirits worshiped at Nemausus (Nîmes) were the Nemausicae or Matres Nemausicae, who were fertility and healing goddesses belonging to the spring sanctuary.
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