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 (South Picenians), while between Ancona and Rimini to the north the population was multi-ethnic (North Picenians) 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,Strabo, Geography (V, 3, 1)[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/5C*.htmlA system of ancient and mediaeval geography for the use of schools and colleges. by Charles Anthon. by Michigan Historical Reprint Series,, 2005, page 302 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.Kroonen, Guus, et al., (December 2, 2024). "Linguistic Supplementary", in: Yedlay, Fulya Eylem, et al., "Ancient genomics support deep divergence between Eastern and Western Mediterranean Indo-European languages", bioRxiv, p. 1: "aDNA sequencing identified Steppe ancestry reaching north Italy (in individuals buried with Bell Beaker cultural materials) during the latter half of the 3rd millennium and central Italy ~ 1,600 BCE." 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.
Pre-Roman Picenum
The long period of development of the Picenum civilisation has led to several periods (Picenum I to VI) being used to subdivide the period from the 9th to the 3rd century. BC.
The objects left by the Piceni are rich and strongly characteristic: in sculpture, in figurative art (which shows a remarkable imagination in figures and a tendency towards abstraction), 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 (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, a narrow mouth, and a single handle.Mario Zuffa, Delia Lollini, Valerio Cianfarani, La civiltà picena, in Popoli e civiltà dell'Italia antica, Roma, Biblioteca di Storia Patria, 1976, vol. V. pp. 122-160
Phase "Picenum II" (8th century BC)
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 cutlasses. 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.
Phase "Picenum III" (7th century BC and part of the 6th, up to 580 BC)
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.Stefania Sebastiani, Ancona: forma e urbanistica, L'ERMA di BRETSCHNEIDER, 1996 (pagina 21). ISBN 9788870629507 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 deceased 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, and Taverne di Serravalle. The best known finds are the oinochoe made using an ostrich egg, the lid with the dance around the totem, and 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.
Phase "Picenum IV" (from 580 to 470 BC)
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 that 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.
Phase "Picenum V" (from 470 BC until the beginning of the 4th century)
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 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.
Phase "Picenum VI" (4th and a small part of the 3rd century BC, up to the Battle of Sentinum)
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. 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.