page_title: Clermont-Ferrand
section_title: Prehistoric and Roman
hierarchical_section_title: Clermont-Ferrand / History / Prehistoric and Roman
context_page_description: Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with a population of 141,569. Its metropolitan area had 467,178 inhabitants at the 2011 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department. Olivier Bianchi is its current mayor.
  Clermont-Ferrand sits on the plain of Limagne in the Massif Central and is surrounded by a major industrial area. The city known for the chain of volcanoes, the Chaîne des Puys surrounding it, including the dormant volcano Puy de Dôme
context_section_description: Clermont ranks among the oldest cities of France. The first known mention was by the Greek geographer Strabo, who called it the "metropolis of the Arverni" (meaning their oppidum, civitas or tribal capital). The city was at that time called Nemessos – a Gaulish word for a sacred forest, and was situated on the mound where the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand stands today. Somewhere in the area around Nemossos the Arverni chieftain Vercingetorix (later to head a unified Gallic resistance to the Roman invasion led by Julius Caesar) was born around 72 BC. Also, Nemossos was situated not far from the plateau of Gergovia, where Vercingetorix repulsed the Roman assault at the Battle of Gergovia in 52 BC. After the Roman conquest, the city became known as Augustonemetum sometime in the 1st century, a name which combined its original Gallic name with that of the Emperor Augustus. Its population was estimated at 15,000–30,000 in the 2nd century, making it one of the largest cities of Roman Gaul. It then became Arvernis in the 3rd century, taking its name, like other Gallic cities in this era, from the people who lived within its walls.
caption: Statue of Vercingétorix by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi on the main square of the city
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