UMBRIA ('OligpcKi), the name of an ancient and a modern district of Italy.
I. The ancient district was bounded in the period of the Roman supremacy by the Ager Gallicus (in a line with Ravenna) on the north, by Etruria (the Tiber) on the west, by the Sabine terri tory on the south and by Picenum on the east. The Via Flaminia passed up through it from Ocriculum to Ariminum; along it lay the important towns of Narnia (Narni), Carsulae, Mevania (Bevagna), Forum Flaminii, Nuceria Camellaria (Nocera) and Forum Sempronii; and on the Adriatic coast Fanum Fortunae (Fano) and Pisaurum (Pesaro). To the east lay Interamna (Terni), Spoletium (Spoleto), Fulginium (Foligno—on a branch of the Via Flaminia which left the main road at Narnia and rejoined it at Forum Flaminii) and the important town of Camerinum on the side of the Apennines towards Picenum. On the side towards Etruria lay Ameria (Amelia) and Tuder (Todi), both on the direct road from Rome to Perusia, Iguvium, which occupied a very advantageous position close to the main pass through the Apennines, and Hispellum (Spello). Not far off was Assisium (Assisi), whilst far to the north in the mountains lay Sarsina. Under the empire it formed the sixth region of Italy.
The name Umbria is derived from the Umbri, one of the chief constituent stocks of the Italian nation. The origin and ethnic affinities of the Umbrians are still, like their geographical location in early times (1200-1000 B.C.), quite unknown (Randall Maclver, Iron Age in Italy [Oxford, 1927], r4o), but their language proves them to have been an Aryan people closely allied with the Oscans and in a remoter degree with the Latins.
The process by which the Umbrians were deprived of their traditional predominance in upper and central Italy and restricted to their confines of historic times cannot be traced in detail. Their easternmost territory in the region of Ancona was perhaps wrested from them by the Picenes, a branch of the Sabine stock: and it is probable that they were partly displaced in the valley of the Po by the Gaulish tribes which began to pour across the Alps from about Soo B.C. But their chief enemies were un doubtedly the Etruscans (q.v.), who eventually drove them into that upland tract athwart the Apennines to which the name of Umbria belonged in historical times without eradicating the Umbrian element of population in the conquered districts. In
Etruria proper the persistence of the Umbrian stock is indicated by the survival of numerous Umbrian place-names, and by the record of Umbrian soldiers taking part in Etruscan enterprises, e.g., the attack on Cumae in 524 B.C. Indeed it is not unlikely that the bulk of the population in Etruria continued to be of Umbrian origin, and that the Romanization of this country was facilitated by the partial absorption of the Etruscan conquerors into the Umbrian multitude.
Against the Romans the Umbrians never f ought any wars of importance. After the downfall of the Etruscan power they made a belated attempt to aid their Samnite kinsmen in their decisive struggle against Rome (3o8 B.c.); but their communications with Samnium were impeded by the foundation of a Roman fortress at Narnia (298 B.c.), and at the great battle of Sentinum (295 B.c.), which was fought in their own territory, the Umbrians did not lend the Samnites any substantial help. It is perhaps on account of this defection that in 200 B.C. they received from the Romans a portion of the Ager Gallicus reconquered from the Senonian Gauls. They offered no opposition to the construction • of the Via Flaminia through the heart of their country, and in the Second Punic War withheld all assistance from Hannibal. In the Social War (9o-89 B.c.), they joined the rebels tardily and were among the first to make their peace with Rome. Henceforth they no longer played an independent part in Italian history.
The material prosperity of Umbria, in spite of its unfavourable position for commercial intercourse, was relatively great, owing to the fertility of the numerous small valleys which intersect the Apennine system in this region. The chief products of the soil were olives, vines and spelt; the uplands harboured the choicest boars of Italy. The abundance of inscriptions and the high pro portion of recruits furnished to the army attest its continued populousness. Among its most famous natives were the poets Plautus (b. at Sarsina) and Propertius (b. at Assisi).