UMBRIA (Ὀμβρική, Ὀμβρικοί, Οὖμβροι, Umbri). The early Greeks applied the name Ὀμβρική to all central and northern Italy. Herodotus (iv. 49) speaks of it somewhat vaguely, as if it extended up to the Alps. The Umbrians probably extended across central Italy from sea to sea down as far as Latium. Pliny (iii. 13, 19) tells us that the Umbri were considered the most ancient nation of Italy (antiquissima gens Italise), by which he probably means, of the Italian stock. The Greek writers included under the name of Umbria the district known in later times as Picenum. Pseudo-Scylax makes Umbria march with Samnium, and describes Ancona as a city of Umbria. The Umbrians seem to have found the Siculi and Liburni in occupation of the land into which they advanced, the former holding the parts lying towards the interior, the latter people the district along the Adriatic. The Umbrians were one of the chief peoples of that branch of the Indo-European family which had entered Italy from the north and driven out and absorbed the older inhabitants. They were more closely connected with the Samnites and Oscans than with the Latin stock, as is shown by their language. Their possession of the fertile regions of upper Italy exposed them to the constant assaults of fresh bodies of invaders, pressing on over the Alps, and perhaps likewise from the seaboard. Their force was extended over a wide area, and thus too weak to withstand the attacks from various sides to which they were exposed. Thus their extensive territory was gradually reduced by the successive encroachments of other peoples. First came the Etruscans, who according to Herodotus (i. 94) were Lydians, who established themselves in the land of the Umbrians. From which side of Italy they made their invasion, whether from the mouth of the Poor from the western coast of what later became Etruria, or whether from both, we have no means of determining. That the Umbrians did not yield without a struggle we cannot doubt. It was only after three hundred of their towns had been captured by the Etruscans that they succumbed. Nevertheless they still retained considerable influence in upper Italy, which, according to Strabo (v. 216), continued down to the time of the Roman conquest. For he says that there was a large Umbrian element in the Roman colonies in the region of the Po, as also some Etruscan. For, according to him, the Umbrians and Etruscans lived in a continual rivalry for the pre-eminence, so that if the one people made an expedition northwards, the other determined not to be outdone. So when the Etruscans had marched against the barbarians who dwelt near the Po, and had soon again been expelled owing to their effeminacy, the Umbrians in turn marched against the conquerors of the Etruscans. In consequence of this alternating struggle for these regions they planted many colonies, some Etruscan, others Umbrian. Most of the colonies were Umbrian because the Umbrians lay closer to the disputed territory. Thus, even though they lost the sovereignty, the Umbrian race probably continued to form a considerable portion of the population of a wide extent of country. At all events, at the time of the Gaulish inroad the Etruscans seem to be in possession of the mouth of the Po. At this time, therefore, Umbria as a state consisted of the region bounded on the W. by the Tiber, on the S. by the Sabines, on the E. by Picenum and the Adriatic, while on the N. it extended close up to the southern or Spinetic mouth of the Po. Scylax describes the Etruscans as extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Adriatic, and represents them as in possession of the ancient Greek town of Spina. How much farther south the Etruscan sway had once reached we cannot determine, but that they had once held this region, as far as Ravenna at least, is rendered probable by the tradition that Ravenna had been founded by a colony of Thessaliaus who, not brooking the insulting treatment which they received from the Etruscans, gladly admitted some Umbrians, who thus became the possessors of the city. When the great Gaulish inroad took place at the beginning of the 4th century B.C. Etruscans and Umbrians alike suffered severely. Some of the Celtic tribes crossed the Po and formed permanent settlements. The Ananes settled in the Apennines, the Boii between the former and the Adriatic; next came the Lingones; and finally the Senones occupied the seaboard of the Adriatic as far as the Rubicon. This region in Roman times was known as the Ager Gallicus (Polybius, ii. 16). But it was not only in the north and west that the Umbrians had been driven back. The early Greeks had included under the name of Umbria the district along the Adriatic, afterwards known as Picenum. This consisted of a fertile region, extending from beyond Ancona to the river Matrino. It is not improbable that the Picentes issued from the Sabine region. Tradition alleged ​that the Picentes, led by the woodpecker (picus) of Mars, marched forth to occupy what is now the March of Ancona. But it was probably only after a long struggle that this conquest was effected, for from another tradition we learn that the Sabines, after carrying on war against the Umbrians for a long time, at length vowed a sacred spring, and dedicated all the produce of the year to the gods. Then at length they became victorious (Strabo, v. 250). Thus, by the advance of the Gauls from the north and the Picentes from the south, the Umbrians were shut off from the seaboard, and confined to the district known as Umbria in historical times. When Rome began the consolidating of Italy, Umbria consisted of the region bounded by the Ager Gallicus on the N., by Etruria (the Tiber) on the W., by Picenum on the E., and by the Sabines on the S. The Umbrians kept a desperate hold of this district, which lies between the two arms of the Apennines. This position indicates of itself that they had been driven before stronger foes. Henceforward they play but an insignificant part in Italian history. This is explained by the physical formation of their country. It is an extremely mountainous region, with a few small plains between, which were noted for their fertility. Hence arose a number of small but thriving communities, none of which had the capacity of developing into a leading state such as Rome became for the Latins. Their want of seaports likewise excluded them from trade, the mouths of all the rivers which flowed from their country being in the hands of their enemies.