Aude /

Aude (Occitan: Aude) is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country". Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother of Saint Hubertus's brother Eudo. Aude was the name of Roland's fiancée in the chansons de gestes. Human traces have been found in the department from 1,500,000 years BCE in the form of hammers and worked tools on the hill of Grazailles at Carcassonne. The most interesting discovery, however, is that of the skull of ‘Tautavel Man’ made by Henry de Lumley in the commune of Tautavel in the Pyrénées-Orientales. It is the oldest skull known in Europe. It dates from about 450,000 years BCE. It is likely that Tautavel Man lived in all of this region. The Romans, led by the consul-general Domitius Ahenobarbus, installed themselves first of all at Narbonne in 118 BCE on the oppidum of Montlaurès, which became the provincial capital and a very active mercantile port. The position was strategically important since it stood at the cross roads of two Roman roads, the Via Aquitania and