Picentes

The Picentes (Latin: Picentes; also known as Picentini or Piceni in modern scholarship) were an ancient Italic people who inhabited the central Adriatic coastal region of the Italian peninsula, corresponding broadly to modern Marche and northern Abruzzo. Their territory, known in antiquity as Picenum, extended between the Esino River to the north and approximately the Saline River to the south, bounded by the Apennines to the west and the Adriatic Sea to the east. The Picentes culture flourished from the 9th to the 3rd century BC before being incorporated into the expanding Roman Republic following conquest in 269–268 BC.^[1][2]

Ancient sources such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder referred to these people as Picentes, sometimes attributing their name to a legendary origin involving a woodpecker (Latin: picus), a bird sacred to Mars.^[3][4] Modern archaeology and linguistics have revealed significant cultural and linguistic diversity within this region. Scholars distinguish between a southern area—associated with speakers of the South Picene language (a member of the Sabellic branch of Italic languages)—and a northern zone where the unclassified and largely undeciphered North Picene language was used, attested primarily in the Novilara stele.^[5][6]

Following the Roman conquest, a portion of the Picentes population was forcibly relocated to southern Campania, where they became known as the Picentini and settled in the Sele plain near what would become Salernum.^[7][8] This displaced community maintained a distinct identity through the Imperial period, and their name survives today in the Campanian Monti Picentini mountain range.

Recent scholarship emphasizes that the Picentes should not be understood as a monolithic ethnic group but rather as a diverse cultural complex shaped by regional variation, intercultural exchange, and eventual Roman administrative categorization.^[9][10] After participation in the Social War (91–88 BC), the remaining Picentes communities received Roman citizenship and were integrated into Roman political structures, though elements of their cultural heritage persisted well into the Imperial period.^[11]

The people known to the Romans as the Picentes (Latin: Picentes) have been referred to in both ancient and modern sources by several related names, including Piceni and Picentini. These terms reflect external classifications imposed by Roman authors and administrators, and they do not necessarily correspond to how the group identified themselves.

Latin sources used multiple variants of the ethnonym, reflecting the complex linguistic and cultural identity of the Picentes. The terms Picentes, Piceni, and Picentini were used with nuanced distinctions:

• Picentes – the earliest attested form, used in official Roman triumphal records such as the Fasti triumphales for the year 268 BC;^[12]
• Piceni – a Latin form sometimes used by later Roman authors and adopted by modern Italian scholarship;
• Picentini – a term referring to the Picentes population forcibly relocated to southern Campania after the Roman conquest, particularly describing the community settled in the Gulf of Paestum.^[13]
• Picenum – the geographical name for the original territory.

These forms derive from the root Pic-, which is likely related to the Latin word for woodpecker (picus).^[14]

Notably, the linguistic variations reflect not just administrative changes, but complex processes of cultural identification and Roman administrative categorization. The terms were not always used with strict consistency, with authors sometimes using Picentes and Picentini interchangeably.

There is a legend that a woodpecker (Latin: picus) led the way to Picenum for the people who became the Picentini, with a folk etymology suggesting their name means "those of the woodpecker".^[15] Ancient sources such as Strabo and Pliny the Elder attributed the name of the Picentes to this legendary migration, describing a sacred woodpecker associated with the god Mars.^[16][17] This mythological association continues to resonate today, with the green woodpecker serving as the modern emblem of the Marche region.

Some scholars have suggested that the South Picenes may have referred to themselves by a different ethnonym entirely. Several inscriptions in the South Picene language, found near Ascoli Piceno, contain a form interpreted as Pupeneis or púpúnis nir, which may indicate a local or tribal self-designation.^[18][19] The relationship between this term and the Latin Picentes remains speculative.

Recent scholarship increasingly interprets the term Picentes not as the designation of a single, cohesive ethnic group, but as a Roman construct applied to a heterogeneous set of communities inhabiting the Adriatic littoral between the Esino and Saline rivers. Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that these groups exhibited significant regional variation, including differences in burial practices, settlement patterns, material culture, and language.

Notably, the existence of both South Picene (an Italic language) and North Picene (still largely undeciphered) inscriptions points to linguistic diversity within the region traditionally labeled Picenum.^[20][21]

Modern scholars thus often use ethnonyms like Piceni or Picentes with caution, acknowledging that these terms reflect Roman administrative and military classifications rather than self-defined identities. The case of the Picentini—a population relocated by Rome to Campania after 268 BC and identified in ancient sources as distinct yet related—further illustrates how Roman intervention could redefine or fragment ethnonyms in service of political aims.^[22] The concept of Picentes is now understood within broader frameworks of identity formation, colonial integration, and the imposition of ethnographic categories by Roman elites during and after conquest.^[23]

The history of the Picentes spans from their early development in central Italy through their interactions with Rome, eventual conquest, and integration into the Roman state.

Picentes may have been Sabine colonists,^[24][25] although this is doubted by more recent scholars, who see the South Picenes more closely related to the Sabellians, as Steppe ancestry and Bell Beaker culture materials have been found in central Italy since c. 1600 BC.^[26] Picentini date from the 9th c. BC as shown by archaeology.

The Piceni did not have a state-type organisation, had no predominant inhabited centre and therefore had no need for a capital. In 390 BC the Senoni Gauls invaded Italy from the north and occupied Picenum north of the Esino river and the centuries-old balance in Picenum underwent drastic changes. The archaeological evidence shows groups of Senones settled much further south of this river, in the Macerata area and even in the Ascoli area, in sites such as Filottrano, San Genesio, Matelica, and Offida.

In 299 BC the Romans captured Nequinum, they also concluded a treaty with the Picentes.^[27] In 297 BC the Picentes warned the Roman Senate that they had been approached by the Samnites asking for alliance in renewed hostilities with Rome for which the Senate thanked them.^[28]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Romans in about 290 BC had absorbed the territory of the Pretuzi, south of Picenum and after a series of victories with the help of the Piceni themselves, the Senones were expelled from the coastal region in 283 BC and the Romans annexed it down to Ancona when it became part of the Ager publicus (Roman state land). The Romans had made Senigallia a colony and were planning another colony a little further north. Following this progressive and unstoppable expansion of Rome around their territory the Piceni realised that they had supported a great power by which they were surrounded, and hence they broke the alliance and in 269 BC revolted and started the "Picentine war".

The consuls Appius Claudius Russus and Titus Sempronius Sophus were sent by the Roman Senate to Picenum. Sempronius arrived through the Tronto valley, while Appius passed through Umbria, descended into the Potenza valley through the Pioraco straits and took the fortified city of Camerino. To reunite the armies, the consuls conducted the military campaign by first invading the territories of the Agro Palmense (Fermo), so as to wedge themselves between the northern and southern Piceno territories. Sempronius led his troops into the Aso valley, avoiding a frontal attack on the city of Ascoli Piceno, which would have greatly delayed the campaign. After defeating the Picene troops at Interamnia, he arrived in what is now Ortezzano; following a new clash with the Picene resistance, the same city was devastated. Meanwhile, the Piceni forces had gathered at Truento, with a strong army; thus, Sempronius had to go back, in the valley of the Tronto, slowing down the advance. Before the battle started, a massive earthquake shook the earth, throwing men on both sides into panic; the first to awake from fear were the Romans, since the consul stated that the seismic event was a favourable omen for Rome and that, after the battle, he would erected a temple in Tellure. Once the initial fear was overcome, calm returned even among the ranks of the Piceni. The ensuing clash was so violent that few survived the battle, on either side. The negative outcome of the battle reduced the Piceni to sue for peace. For Rome, the victory against the Piceni was so important that, in addition to being given a triumph to the consuls, the Senate decided to mint memorial silver coins for the first time.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Picentes" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Ancona retained the statute of civitas foederata or ally of Rome and Asculum received the same status but the rest of Picenum was annexed and partially Romanised, their cities being made first civitas sine suffragio (268 BC) and then civitas optimo iure (241 BC). The Romans made two more colonies to hold it: Ariminum in 268 and Firmum in 264.^[29] Between these years part of the Piceno population was deported: the inhabitants of Ortona to Lake Fucino, some colonies founded in Marsica, Campania, giving them land at Paestum and on the river Silarus and assisted them to build a city, Picentia.^[30] They also placed a garrison at Salernum to monitor them. Strabo reports that in his time (64 BC – c. 24 AD) they had depopulated the city in favour of villages scattered about the Salerno region.^[31] In Ptolemy's time (2nd century AD) a population named by him the Picentini were still at Salernum and Surentum.^[32]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Picentes" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Following the expansion of the Roman Republic in the 2nd century BC to which the Italians had contributed, they asked that Roman citizenship be extended to them but continued to be legally discriminated against.^[33] It came to a head when the Social War (91–87 BC) broke out following an insurrection in the city of Asculum: after having killed the Roman proconsul Quintus Servilius and the legate Fonteius, the people of Asculum massacred the entire Roman population of the city.^[34][35] Subsequently, the Piceni and the other Italic peoples (except the Etruscans and the Umbrians) joined together and made their own capital, Corfinium. The Piceni were therefore the main inspirers, with Peligni and Marsi, of the whole coalition; the Italian army, divided into two branches, one Sabellic led by Quintus Poppaedius Silo, the other Samnite led by Gaius Papius Mutilus,^[36] had contingents of numerous peoples while the Piceni were led by Gaius Vidacilius^[37] and Publius Ventidius Bassus.^[38]

The initial phases of the conflict took place in Picenum, between Asculum and Firmum; the Picene commanders defeated Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo near Falerone (90 BC), forcing him to retreat and find refuge in Firmum, which was besieged. Meanwhile in the summer of the same year the commander Vidacilius rushed to support the Peligni in battle and Ventidius Bassus was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Etruscans and Umbrians to induce them to support the Italian cause; parallel to this, Pompeius Strabo received the support of a Roman contingent, sent to break the siege of the Piceni. The latter thus found themselves having to contend with the Romans on two fronts: the threat was in fact brought both by the besieged inside the city, who could make sorties, and by the troops that had just arrived in Fermo; they were thus defeated, also suffering the loss of the general left to lead the siege, the Marsian Titus Lafrenius.^[39]

Picentes were however divided during the War, with some fighting against Rome for the Roman citizenship and others remaining loyal.

With the troops left after the battle of Firmum, Pompeius Strabo moved towards Asculum, besieging it. Shortly after, the commander Vidacilius went north with the intention of freeing the besieged; however, while managing to break through the enemy lines and enter the city, upon his arrival he did not find his fellow citizens willing to oppose the siege as he had requested; disappointed and indignant by this attitude, Vidacilius took his own life.

In 89 BC an army of Marsi tried to undermine the Roman encirclement of the Piceni capital, but failed; the city finally fell on that year, was razed to the ground and its citizens deprived of all property. The fall of Asculum marked the definitive defeat of the Italians. At the end of the conflict, the Piceni were ascribed to the Fabia tribe, obtaining Roman citizenship^[40] and completing the Romanisation process of the Piceno population, which began in the 3rd century BC.

In 27 BC Augustus established a colony at Asculum. The territory inhabited by the Piceni during the Augustan age was divided between Regio V (Picenum) and Regio VI (Umbria et ager gallicus picenus). It was reunified during the empire of Diocletian in the Flaminia et Picenum region.

The Picentes civilization is characterized by a rich and distinctive material culture that spans nearly six centuries, from the 9th to the 3rd century BC.^[41]This period demonstrates a complex society with technological innovations, artistic creativity, and cultural exchanges.

The objects left by the Piceni are diverse and sophisticated, reflecting artistic and technological achievements.^[42][43] Their material culture includes innovative sculpture, figurative art with abstract tendencies, original ceramic forms, amber artifacts, weaponry, and personal ornaments. Archaeological studies have examined the role of amber in Picene trade and social practices.^[44]

Archaeological evidence indicates a civilization characterized by technological and artistic developments. The Piceni engaged in trade and cultural exchange with neighboring Mediterranean societies, including Etruscans, Greeks, and eastern Mediterranean cultures.^[45] Excavations at Novilara have provided insights into interactions with Greek colonies through pottery and inscriptional evidence.^[46]

Archaeologists have divided the Picene civilization into six distinct phases (Picenum I to VI), tracing its development from the late Bronze Age through the Iron Age and into the early Roman Republic period.^[47] Ongoing archaeological research continues to refine understanding of Picene settlement patterns and social organization.^[48]

Excavations in necropolises like Novilara have been crucial to understanding Picene society, providing insights into burial practices, technological capabilities, artistic expressions, and social structures.^[49][50] Bioarchaeological analyses of skeletal remains have contributed to knowledge of Picene population health and demographics.^[51]

The birth and spread of the Picene civilisation mark the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in the Marche region. In the first phase, the Piceni necropolises and settlements show a gradual passage between these two ages, given the close archaeological links with the previous Bronze Age civilisations widespread in the Marche: the Apennine culture and the Proto-Villanovan culture. From the point of view of funeral customs, the Picenes are distinguished from previous civilisations by the use of the burial ritual (curled up and on a bed of gravel), but among the elements of continuity with the cultures of the Bronze Age there is the continuation, although in small numbers only, of incineration tombs.

The archaeological evidence of this first phase shows a concentration of the population in the coastal area and in particular in the area of the Conero promontory (Ancona, Numana, Camerano, Osimo) and the short stretch of high coast of Porto Sant'Elpidio; inside, the settlements of Monte Roberto and Moie di Pollenza are known. The guiding exhibit is the kothon, a small typically Picene terracotta vase, with a flattened globular shape, with a narrow mouth and a single handle.^[41]

The archaeological evidence bears witness to a diffusion of the Picene civilisation towards the north, up to the northern part of the Marche, where the very rich necropolis of Novilara was found, up to now the only one fully excavated and which has been able to enjoy a complete publication of the results of the excavation. The phase is characterised by a great development of metallurgy, also testified by typical Picene objects, such as the spiral armlets in laminate and the solar boat pectorals with wild duck protomes on the bow and stern, rich in symbolic meanings. In this phase, among other things, the first iron objects appear: short swords and cutlass. Despite this, bronze swords of the "antenna" type are still produced and used. Some metal objects bear witness to relations with the opposite Adriatic shore; among these the fibulae with spectacles, subsequently accompanied by a vast range of typologies of fibulae of all sizes, which appear as a characterising element of Picene female ornaments.^[41]

The diffusion area of the phase coincides with that of the previous phase: all the Marche; however, a concentration of testimonies can be observed in the area close to the Apennines, characterised by an orientalising culture, that is influenced by the Mediterranean East: Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor. In fact, objects from these countries were imported into Picenum through the Greek emporiums of Ankón (Ancona) and Numana.^[52] Also characteristic of this phase are the imports of Etruscan objects made in a style similar to the oriental one. Even the Etruscan civilisation, in fact, goes through a similar phase, also called "orientalising". Tumulus tombs and circle burials are typical of this phase, typologies that are influenced by oriental customs; in these tombs the buried are often accompanied by their war chariot. The best known centres of the orientalising Picenum area are located near the Apennine passes and are therefore linked to trade with the Etruscans: Fabriano, Pitino di San Severino, Taverne di Serravalle. The best known finds are the oinochoe made using an ostrich egg, the lid with the dance around the totem, the war chariots. In the Picenum the orientalising period begins around the middle of the 7th century.

Despite the external influences, local art is still flourishing and is characterised by the tendency to synthesise human and animal figures to the point of making them almost abstract; typical examples are the armour-discs decorated with human figures juxtaposed with fantastic animals. Furthermore, in this phase the production of extraordinary ceramics for variety and formal imagination begins. Metallurgy also produces objects of great originality, such as breastplates decorated with human figures linked together by rings or by holding hands; the best known example is the one from Numana. The fibulae are also produced in the most varied typologies, such as those with a winding bow, a dragon with antennas, a ship; another very typical item of women's clothing is the "disc-stole", made with solar symbols.

The Novilara inscriptions and the absorption of the Villanovan culture of Fermo within the Picene culture date back to this period.^[41]

The phase is divided by archaeologists into "Picenum IV A" and "Picenum IV B", which are considered here together.

The territory saw a rarefaction of the testimonies to the north of the Esino and a flowering of testimonies in the south of the Marche and in the north of Abruzzo.

Some of the most typical and well-known elements of the Picene civilisation date to this period. In particular they are: the South Picene inscriptions, the monumental statuary of Numana and Capestrano, the extraordinary richness and variety of the female ornamentation of the fibulae, even more than in the previous phase and the enigmatic six-knot rings, which appeared in the early twentieth century as a symbol of the entire Picene civilisation.

The typical material of this period can be considered amber, already attested previously, but with which the best-known objects, coming from Belmonte Picenum, were made in this phase. An amber route has been identified which from the Baltic reached the coasts of Picenum, where the fossil resin was much appreciated, also due to the characteristics that put it in relation with the solar symbology. In the last century, the Piceni were also called "people of amber" because of their love for this material, and their very name was related to the Latin term pix, picis, i.e. amber.

Weapons are now all made of iron, and present a great variety and continuous updating, a rare thing in Italic peoples of the same period; among the offensive weapons of the period we remember the scimitar broadsword of the machaira type and, among those of defense, the typical helmets with reliefs in the shape of animal horns, which however coexist with other helmets of the Greek-Corinthian type. The production of armor-discs continues, but they too are strongly influenced by Greek art in their ornamentation. The inhumation is now fully extended.^[41]

From a territorial point of view we note a revitalisation of the Picenum centres north of the Esino; south of this river all the centres already vital in the previous phase continue their activities.

The dominant archaeological feature of this phase is the massive importation of Greek red-figure pottery, which then spread throughout the Picenum territory through the ports of Numana and Ancona. In particular, the complex of vases from Numana is exceptionally rich, with specimens also monumental^[41] and with rich mythological representations.

This abundance can be explained by thinking of the fact that, after the naval battle of Alalia (540 BC), the Etruscans and the Carthaginians managed to prevent the Greeks from trading freely in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Thus the Adriatic cities of Numana, Spina and Adria flourished, which in any case allowed a commercial outlet for the rich Greek vase production. Interestingly, a form of Attic pottery was produced by the Greeks specifically for the Piceni; it is the "plate with a high foot", which some archaeologists think was used to serve a typical Picenum product during banquets: olives.

The Battle of Sentinum conventionally marks, according to archaeology, the dissolution of the Picene culture, which from then was gradually absorbed within the Roman one.^[41] Naturally, even after this date, the history of the Piceni continues, even if its vitality is no longer expressed so much on a cultural (and therefore archaeological) level, as in the important role they played during the Romanisation of the Adriatic coast. This explains the fact that, despite the Picenum phase VI is the last described by the archaeologists, the history of the Picenes continues even after this phase, and is the subject of the following paragraphs.

A fundamental event of the period is the arrival of the Senoni Gauls, who occupied the northern part of the Picenum territory, reaching as far as the Esino river, with temporary or limited expansions even further south. The Senones partially merged with the Piceni of the occupied areas, but profoundly influencing their culture.^[53] After the Gallic invasion, the control by the Piceni of the Adriatic coastal area is approximately included between the Castellano torrent, Numana and the Conero.^[54] The Picenum territory occupied by the Gauls was later called by the Romans Ager Gallicus or specifically the Ager Gallicus Picenus.

Another event that contributed to modifying the ethnic balance of the Picenum territory was the arrival of Greeks, coming from Syracuse, who founded the colony of Ankón (Ancona) which absorbed the previous Picenum village.^[55]

Despite these factors, the Picene culture precisely in this period produced a highly original type of vase, defined by archaeologists as "upper Adriatic ceramics", characterised by female figures seen in profile, so stylised as to recall some forms of modern art.

A 2017 analysis of maternal haplogroups from ancient and modern samples indicated a substantial genetic similarity among the modern inhabitants of Central Italy and the area's ancient pre-Roman inhabitants of settlement of Novilara in the province of Pesaro, and evidence of substantial genetic continuity in the region from pre-Roman times to the present with regard to mitochondrial DNA.^[56]

In a 2024 study of Iron Age ancient samples, the two main Y haplogroups in Picene were R1-M269/L23 (58% of the total) and J2-M172/M12 (25% of the total), which respectively indicate the direct relationship with Central Europe and the Balkan peninsula. Particularly, the R1-M269/L23 haplogroup was related to the Yamnaya ancestry and was present at high frequency in Central European populations since the Bronze Age onwards.^[57]

From Ancona southward a language of the Umbrian group was originally spoken, today called South Picene, attested mainly in inscriptions.^[58] North of Ancona around Pesaro a non-Italic language termed North Picene, written in a version of the Old Italic script, is attested by four inscriptions (three of which are very brief). Both the meaning of the inscriptions and the relationship of North Picene to other languages remain unknown. There is phonological evidence that it was linked more closely to the Indo-European language family (than to, for example, Etruscan).^[59]

• Afrania gens
• Annia gens
• Nasidiena (gens)
• Pasidiena gens
• Pilia (gens)
• Saturia gens

• Picenum
• North Picene language
• South Picene language
• Ancient peoples of Italy
• Coinage of Picenum