City
Avaricum
Bourges
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Avaricum, the chief town of the Gallic Bituriges Cubi, is Bourges in France. Its name seems to come from the river Avera, now the Yèvre, which together with marshes shielded the site. Caesar praised it as almost the most beautiful city in all Gaul, yet in 52 BC he took it after a long siege, plundered it and burned it down. Rebuilt, it gained a temple, baths, aqueducts and an amphitheatre, and under Diocletian became capital of Aquitania Prima. From the fourth century the tribe's name displaced Avaricum, and it lives on in Bourges and the region of Berry.