Picentes
The Picentes or Piceni or Picentini were an ancient Italic people who lived from the 9th to the 3rd century BC in the area between the Foglia and Aterno rivers, bordered to the west by the Apennines and to the east by the Adriatic coast. Their territory, known as Picenum, therefore included all of today's Marche and the northern part of Abruzzo. Recently, a genome-wide archaeogenetic study of individuals from two Picene necropoleis found that all the individuals associated with this culture display genetic continuity with earlier populations.
The limits of Picenum depend on the era; during the early classical antiquity the region between the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea south of Ancona was Picenum, while between Ancona and Rimini to the north the population was multi-ethnic because after 390 BC the Senoni Gauls had combined with or supplanted earlier populations. In the Roman Republic the coastal part of northern Picenum was called the ager Gallicus.
History
Picentes may have been Sabine colonists, 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. 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.
Roman Era
When in 299 BC the Romans captured Nequinum, they also concluded a treaty with the Picentes. 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.Picentine war
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. 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, 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.
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 and then civitas optimo iure. The Romans made two more colonies to hold it: Ariminum in 268 and Firmum in 264. 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. They also placed a garrison at Salernum to monitor them. Strabo reports that in his time they had depopulated the city in favour of villages scattered about the Salerno region. In Ptolemy's time a population named by him the Picentini were still at Salernum and Surentum.
Social War
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. It came to a head when the Social War 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. Subsequently, the Piceni and the other Italic peoples 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, had contingents of numerous peoples while the Piceni were led by Gaius Vidacilius and Publius Ventidius Bassus.The initial phases of the conflict took place in Picenum, between Asculum and Firmum; the Picene commanders defeated Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo near Falerone, 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.
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 and completing the Romanisation process of the Piceno population, which began in the 3rd century BC.
Empire
In 27 BC Augustus established a colony at Asculum. The territory inhabited by the Piceni during the Augustan age was divided between Regio V and Regio VI. It was reunified during the empire of Diocletian in the Flaminia et Picenum region.Periods
The long period of development of the Picenum civilisation has led to several periods being used to subdivide the period from the 9th to the 3rd c. BC.The objects left by the Piceni are rich and strongly characteristic: in sculpture, in figurative art, in the originality of the forms of ceramics, in the abundant use of amber, in the great variety of weapons and in eye-catching female adornments.
Phase "Picenum I" (9th century BC)
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, 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 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.