The Carnutes, a powerful Celtic people in the heart of independent Gaul, dwell in a particularly extensive territory between the Sequana (Seine) and the Liger (Loire) rivers.

Their lands later correspond to the dioceses of Chartres, Orléans and Blois, that is, the greater part of the modern departments of Eure-et-Loir, Loiret and Loir-et-Cher.

The territory of the Carnutes has the reputation among Roman observers of being the political and religious center of the Gaulish nations.

The chief fortified towns are Cenabum (mistakenly "Genabum"), the modern Orléans, where a bridge crosses the Loire, and Autricum (or Carnutes, thus Chartres).

The great annual druidic assembly mentioned by Caesar took place in one or the other of these towns.

Livy's history records the legendary tradition that the Carnutes had been one of the tribes which accompanied Bellovesus in his invasion of Italy during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus.