Liger

(Loire)

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The longest river in Gaul (France), rising in the Cevenna (Cevennes) Mountains not far west of Lugdunum (Lyon) and extending for six hundred and thirty-four miles to its estuary in the Bay of Biscay. The tribes of the Carnutes (reduced by Julius Caesar in 53 BC) and Turones bestrode its middle reaches. The cities along its course included Nevirnum (Nevers), Cenabum or Civitas Aurelianorum (Orléans), Caesarodunum (Tours), Juliomagus (Angers) and Condevicnum (Nantes, where an inscription refers to river sailors, nautae Ligerici). In the early Roman Principate the Liger came within the province of Gallia Lugdunensis, and in the later empire it flowed successively through Lugdunensis Prima, Lugdunensis Senonia and Lugdunensis Tertia, eventually forming the boundary between the last-named province and Aquitania Secunda.