City
Augustum Nemetum
Clermont-Ferrand
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Augustum Nemetum, today Clermont-Ferrand in France, carries a name meaning 'sanctuary of Augustus', joining the emperor to the Celtic word for a holy place. The town was laid out at the end of the first century BC on an uninhabited hill around a cult site, as the new capital of the Arverni, taking the place of the older Gergovia. Its sacred spring received thousands of offerings, above all small wooden statuettes. Later the town was simply called Arverni, and in the Middle Ages Clermont. On the map its name floats oddly high above its symbol, set at a slight angle.