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100-599: Traditions of the Opici fall into the legendary period of Italian history , roughly from the beginning of the first millennium BC until the foundation of the Roman Republic . No consensus can be reached concerning their location and language. By the end of this period, the Oscan language had evolved and was spoken by a number of sovereign tribal states. By far the most important of these in terms of military prowess and wealth

200-687: A co-belligerent of the Allies during the Italian resistance and liberation of Italy . Following the end of the German occupation and the killing of Benito Mussolini, the 1946 Italian institutional referendum abolished the monarchy and became a republic, reinstated democracy, enjoyed an economic boom , and co-founded the European Union ( Treaty of Rome ), NATO , the Group of Six (later G7 ), and

300-539: A dominant influence on subsequent European art. The Aldine Press, founded by the printer Aldo Manuzio , developed Italic type and the small, relatively portable and inexpensive printed book that could be carried in one's pocket. In the early 16th century, Baldassare Castiglione with The Book of the Courtier laid out his vision of the ideal gentleman and lady, while Niccolò Machiavelli in The Prince , laid down

400-855: A few possible short epigraphic documents. The only written information comes from classical literature of the Greeks and Romans , and may be considered more mythological than historical. The language (or languages) spoken in Sardinia during the Bronze Age is (are) unknown since there are no written records from the period, although research suggests that around the 8th century BC the Nuragic populations may have adopted an alphabet similar to that used in Euboea . The Etruscan civilization flourished in central Italy after 800 BC. The main hypotheses on

500-780: A highly organized commercial and financial city-state, becoming for many centuries the European capital of silk, wool, banking and jewellery. Central and southern Italy was far poorer than the north. Rome was largely in ruins, and the Papal States were a loosely administered region with little law and order. Partly because of this, the Papacy had relocated to Avignon in France. Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia had for some time been under foreign domination. The Black Death in 1348 killed perhaps one-third of Italy's population. The recovery from

600-634: A huge migration of Germanic tribes took place, led by the Cimbri and the Teutones. These tribes overwhelmed the peoples with whom they came into contact and threatened Italy. At the Battle of Aquae Sextiae and the Battle of Vercellae the Germans were virtually annihilated. In these two battles the Teutones and Ambrones are said to have lost 290,000 men, and the Cimbri 220,000. In the mid-1st century BC,

700-518: A major Greek colony, enlisted the aid of Pyrrhus of Epirus in 281 BC, but this effort failed. In the 3rd century BC, Rome had to face a new and formidable opponent: Carthage . In the three Punic Wars , Carthage was eventually destroyed and Rome gained control over Hispania, Sicily and North Africa. After defeating the Macedonian and Seleucid Empires in the 2nd century BC, the Romans became

800-455: A process known as Romanization . In the eighth and seventh centuries BC, for reasons including demographic crisis, the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle along the coast of Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula, which became known as Magna Graecia . Greek culture was exported to Italy, in its dialects of

900-515: A role in establishing Catholic missions in California. Kino explored and mapped the southwest and California. In the beginning of the 15th century, adventurers and traders such as Niccolò Da Conti travelled as far as Southeast Asia. In the 14th century, Northern Italy was divided into warring city-states, the most powerful being Milan , Florence , Pisa , Siena , Genoa , Ferrara , Mantua , Verona and Venice . High Medieval Northern Italy

1000-753: A status meant that, within Italy in times of peace, Roman magistrates exercised the Imperium domi (police power) as an alternative to the Imperium militiae (military power). Italy's inhabitants had Latin Rights as well as religious and financial privileges. Roman literature grew steadily in the Golden Age of Latin Literature , with poets like Vergil , Horace , Ovid and Rufus . Augustus also continued

1100-605: A strong centralized government. In 1155, Emperor Manuel Komnenos attempted to regain Southern Italy, but the attempt failed and in 1158 the Byzantines left Italy. The Norman Kingdom lasted until 1194 when Sicily was claimed by the German Hohenstaufen Dynasty . Between the 12th and 13th centuries, Italy developed a peculiar political pattern, significantly different from feudal Europe north of

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1200-461: A unique grade of Proconsular imperium , which gave him authority over all Proconsuls (military governors). The unruly imperial provinces at the borders, where the vast majority of the legions were stationed, were under the control of Augustus. The peaceful senatorial provinces were under the control of the Senate. The Roman legions, which had reached an unprecedented number (around 50) because of

1300-787: A wider conspiracy with the Latin League . They appointed Lucius Furius Camillus dictator, halted business, drafted an army on the spot and sent it into the field against the Aurunci, but "the war was finished in the very first battle". The Romans used the army to complete the conquest of the Volsci at Sora . The Samnites in 343 BC "made an unprovoked attack upon the Sidicini", who appealed to Campania for military assistance and received it. After losing two battles and being penned within Capua ,

1400-462: Is called Torrean civilization ), the Nuraghe civilization lasted from the 18th century BC to the 2nd century AD. They take their name from the characteristic Nuragic towers, which evolved from the pre-existing megalithic culture, which built dolmens and menhirs . Today more than 7,000 nuraghes appear in Sardinia. No written records of this civilization have been discovered, apart from

1500-734: Is still unclear if the Latins had accepted Rome as a member of the League, or if the treaty had been signed as between Rome and the Latin League. During the Roman Kingdom and the early-to-mid Roman Republic there were numerous disputes between Rome and the Latins, which led to a number of wars between Rome and individual Latin cities and occasionally with the entire league. The increasing power of Rome gradually led to its domination of

1600-517: Is that in Rome's first centuries, it was ruled by a succession of seven kings. The Gauls destroyed much of Rome's historical records when they sacked the city after the Battle of the Allia in 390 or 387 BC. With no contemporary records, all accounts of the kings must be carefully evaluated. According to tradition and later writers such as Livy , the Roman Republic was established around 509 BC, when

1700-589: Is the Roman name for Ausones by a commonplace change of an s to an r in Latin: *Ausuni> *Auruni> *Aurunici> Aurunci. They were perhaps the same people in the early Roman Republic . In the 4th century BC, the names came to be applied to distinct tribes. A people called the Aurunci by Livy appear the earliest in history. In 503 BC, the Latin colonies of Cora and Pometia rebelled against Roman authority, obtaining

1800-460: Is widely accepted that Etruscans spoke a non- Indo-European language . Some inscriptions in a similar language, known as Lemnian , have been found on the Aegean island of Lemnos . Etruscans were a monogamous society that emphasized pairing. The historical Etruscans had achieved a form of state with remnants of chiefdom and tribal forms. The first attestations of an Etruscan religion can be traced to

1900-781: The Oration on the Dignity of Man , considered the manifesto of Renaissance Humanism . The Italian Renaissance began in Tuscany and spread south, having an especially significant impact on Rome, which was largely rebuilt by the Renaissance popes. The Tuscan variety of Italian came to predominate throughout the region, especially in Renaissance literature . Prominent authors of the era include Petrarch and Giovanni Boccaccio . Italian Renaissance painting and architecture exercised

2000-698: The Ancient Greek language , its religious rites and its traditions of the independent polis . An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilisations . The most important cultural transplant was the Chalcidean / Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet , which was adopted by the Etruscans ; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into

2100-750: The Battle of Legnano in 1176. In the south, the Normans occupied the Lombard and Byzantine possessions. The few independent city-states were also subdued. During the same period, the Normans ended Muslim rule in Sicily. In 1130, Roger II of Sicily began his rule as the first king of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily ; he had succeeded in uniting all the Norman conquests in Southern Italy into one kingdom with

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2200-750: The Campanians offered themselves to Rome with tears and prostrations in the Senate House. The Senate accepted the offer and granted assistance on the grounds that Campania would be an ally in the rear of the Aequi and Volsci in case of further conflict with them. When Roman envoys presented the Samnite Senate with demands for withdrawal from Campania, the answer was no; moreover, the envoys were allowed to hear staged orders of Samnite commanders to their troops to march on Campania immediately. So began

2300-702: The Crusades . The maritime republics, especially Venice and Genoa, soon became Europe's main gateways to trade with the East, establishing colonies as far as the Black Sea and often controlling most of the trade with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic Mediterranean world. The county of Savoy expanded its territory into the peninsula in the late Middle Ages , while Florence developed into

2400-619: The G20 . The arrival of the first hominins was 850,000 years ago at Monte Poggiolo . The presence of the Homo neanderthalensis has been demonstrated in archaeological findings near Rome and Verona dating to c.  50,000 years ago (late Pleistocene ). Homo sapiens sapiens appeared during the upper Palaeolithic . Remains of the later prehistoric age include Ötzi the Iceman , dating to c.  3400–3100 BC ( Copper Age ). During

2500-535: The Latin alphabet . Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful, like Neapolis ( Naples ), Syracuse , Acragas , and Sybaris . Other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum , Epizephyrian Locri , Rhegium , Croton , Thurii , Elea , Nola , Ancona , Syessa , Bari , and others. After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BC,

2600-567: The Latins , Samnites , and Umbri ), Celts , Magna Graecia colonists, and other ancient peoples have inhabited the Italian Peninsula . Italy was the birthplace and centre of the ancient Roman civilisation . Rome was founded as a kingdom in 753 BC and became a republic in 509 BC. The Roman Republic then unified Italy forming a confederation of the Italic peoples and rose to dominate Western Europe, Northern Africa, and

2700-635: The League of Nations 's executive council. Italian nationalists considered World War I a mutilated victory because Italy did not have all the territories promised by the Treaty of London (1915) , and that sentiment led to the rise of the fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in 1922. During World War II , Italy was part of the Axis powers until the Italian surrender to Allied powers and its occupation by Nazi Germany with Fascist collaborators and then

2800-529: The North Sea , Atlantic coasts, Mediterranean, Red Sea , and the Black Sea . Octavian's leadership brought the zenith of the Roman civilization, which lasted for four decades. His adoption of the name Augustus in 27 BC is usually taken by historians as the beginning of the Roman Empire. Officially, the government was republican, but Augustus assumed absolute powers. The Senate granted Octavian

2900-706: The Osco - Umbrians began to emigrate in various waves, through the process of Ver sacrum , the ritualized extension of colonies, in southern Latium, Molise and the whole southern half of the peninsula, replacing the previous tribes, such as the Opici and the Oenotrians . This corresponds with the emergence of the Terni culture, which had strong similarities with the Celtic cultures of Hallstatt and La Tène . Before and during

3000-643: The Padan Plain , in Tuscany and on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily . In the mid-2nd millennium BC, a third wave arrived, associated with the Apenninian civilization and the Terramare culture . The Terramare people were hunters, but had domesticated animals and cultivated crops; they were fairly skilful metallurgists, casting bronze in moulds. In the late Bronze Age, from the late 2nd millennium to

3100-407: The Papal States , while Southern Italy remained largely feudal due to a succession of Byzantine , Norman , Spanish , and Bourbon crowns. The Italian Renaissance spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism , science , exploration , and art with the start of the modern era . By the mid-19th century, Italian unification , led by the House of Savoy , led to

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3200-415: The Republic and Empire are largely based on legends. According to the founding myth of Rome, the city was founded on 21 April 753 BC by twin brothers Romulus and Remus , who descended from the Trojan prince Aeneas and who were grandsons of Numitor of Alba Longa . The traditional account of Roman history, which has come down through Livy , Plutarch , Dionysius of Halicarnassus , and others,

3300-460: The Samnite Wars . The Latins eventually succeeded in unifying the Italic elements in the country. In the early first century BCE, several Italic tribes, in particular the Marsi and the Samnites, rebelled against Roman rule (the Social War ). After Roman victory was secured, all peoples in Italy, except for the Celts of the Po Valley, were granted Roman citizenship . In the subsequent centuries, Italic tribes adopted Latin language and culture in

3400-411: The Second Samnite War when, prior to invading Samnium, the Romans found it necessary to secure the border tribes. After the war, the Oscans assimilated quickly to Roman culture. Their cultural legacy survived only in place names and literary references. According to Aristotle , the Opici lived in "the part of Italy towards Tyrrhenia " and were also called Ausones . Antiochus of Syracuse agreed that

3500-443: The Villanovan culture . Etruscan expansion was focused across the Apennines . The political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar, albeit more aristocratic, to Magna Graecia in the south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean . Here their interests collided with those of

3600-407: The Volsci , a tribe occupying the Volsci Mountains overlooking and including the Pontine Marshes . During the final revolt of the Volsci, the Romans had sacked and levelled Satricum about 346 BC and had sold the remaining 4,000 fighting men into slavery. For whatever reasons, the Aurunci chose this moment to send a marauding expedition against the Romans. Panic ensued in the city. The senators saw

3700-406: The language of this ancient population to be Pre-Indo-European , they are often not classified as Italics. By the mid-first millennium BCE, the Latins of Rome were growing in power and influence. After the Latins had liberated themselves from Etruscan rule they acquired a dominant position among the Italic tribes. Frequent conflict between various Italic tribes followed; the best documented are

3800-429: The senate , which was initially an advisory council of the ranking nobility, or patricians , but grew in size and power. In the 4th century BC, the Republic came under attack by the Gauls , who initially prevailed and sacked Rome. The Romans then drove the Gauls back, led by Camillus . The Romans gradually subdued the other peoples on the peninsula. The last threat to Roman hegemony in Italy came when Tarentum ,

3900-605: The 15th century, the most powerful city-states annexed their smaller neighbours: Florence took Pisa in 1406, Venice captured Padua and Verona , while the Duchy of Milan annexed nearby areas including Pavia and Parma . The early Renaissance saw almost constant warfare on land and sea as the city-states vied for preeminence. On land, these wars were primarily fought by armies of mercenaries known as condottieri , bands of soldiers drawn from around Europe (especially Germany and Switzerland) led largely by Italian captains. Decades of fighting saw Florence, Milan and Venice emerge as

4000-405: The 1st and 2nd centuries, Roman legions were also employed in intermittent warfare with the Germanic tribes to the north and the Parthian Empire to the east. Meanwhile, armed insurrections (e.g. the Hebraic insurrection in Judea , 70) and brief civil wars (e.g. in 68 AD the year of the four emperors ) demanded the legions' attention. The seventy years of Jewish–Roman wars in the second half of

4100-400: The 1st century and the first half of the 2nd century were exceptional in their duration and violence. An estimated 1,356,460 Jews were killed as a result of the First Jewish Revolt ; the Second Jewish Revolt (115–117) led to the death of more than 200,000 Jews; and the Third Jewish Revolt (132–136) resulted in the death of 580,000 Jewish soldiers. After the 395 death of Theodosius I ,

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4200-469: The Alps. The oligarchic city-state became the prevalent form of government. Keeping direct Church control and Imperial power at arm's length, the many independent city-states prospered through commerce, ultimately creating the conditions for the artistic and intellectual changes produced by the Renaissance . Northern cities and states were notable for their merchant republics , especially the Republic of Venice . Compared to feudal and absolute monarchies,

4300-430: The Copper Age, Indoeuropean people migrated to Italy in four waves. A first Indoeuropean migration occurred around the mid-3rd millennium BC, from a population who imported coppersmithing . The Remedello culture took over the Po Valley . The second wave occurred in the Bronze Age , from the late 3rd to the early 2nd millennium BC, with tribes identified with the Beaker culture and by the use of bronze smithing , in

4400-420: The Empire was divided into an Eastern and a Western Roman Empire . The Western part faced increasing economic and political crises and frequent barbarian invasions, so the capital was moved from Mediolanum to Ravenna . In 476, the last Western Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer . Odoacer's rule ended when the Ostrogoths , under the leadership of Theodoric , conquered Italy. Decades later,

4500-438: The First Samnite War (343–341 BC). The Roman Senate declared war, the people ratified the declaration, and two consular armies were sent into Samnium and Campania respectively. For two years the Romans knew only victories until at last the Samnites sued for the restoration of their former alliance with one condition: they would be free to war on the Sidicini if they wished. The Romans had an agreement with Campania, but none with

4600-440: The Greeks, especially in the 6th century BC, when Phoceans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of France, Catalonia and Corsica . This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with the Carthaginians . Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Carthage expanded its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to Corsica. From

4700-422: The Indies to bypass the Ottoman Empire , played a key role in the Age of Discovery and European colonization of the Americas. The most notable among them were Christopher Columbus , who is credited with discovering the New World; John Cabot , the first European to set foot in "New Found Land" and explore parts of the North American continent in 1497; Amerigo Vespucci , who first demonstrated in about 1501 that

4800-410: The Italic peoples in the Italian peninsula were the Osci , the Veneti , the Samnites , the Latins and the Umbri . In the region south of the Tiber ( Latium Vetus ), the Latial culture of the Latins emerged, while in the north-east of the peninsula the Este culture of the Veneti appeared. Roughly in the same period, from their core area in central Italy (modern-day Umbria and Sabina ),

4900-404: The Latin League would share loot from military conquests (which would later be one of the reasons for the Latin War 341–338 BC) and that any military campaigns between the two would be led by Roman generals. The alliance helped repel attacks from such peoples as the Aequi and the Volsci , tribes of the Apennine Mountains , who were prevented from invading Latium by the blending of armies. It

5000-425: The Latin camp, received separate treaties from Rome. In 337, the Sidicini attacked the Aurunci for no reason given by Livy. The Roman Senate decided that the terms of the latter's treaty warranted military intervention, but meanwhile the Aurunci abandoned their towns in Campania in favour of a mountain stronghold, Suessa , which they renamed Aurunca. Further events escalated the conflict: the Ausones of Cales joined

5100-524: The Near East. After the assassination of Julius Caesar , the Roman Empire dominated Western Europe and the Mediterranean for centuries, contributing to the development of Western culture, philosophy, science and art. With the fall of Rome in AD 476, Italy was fragmented into numerous city-states and regional polities, a situation that would remain until the complete unification of the country in 1871. The maritime republics , in particular Venice and Genoa , rose to prosperity. Central Italy remained under

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5200-529: The New World was not Asia as initially conjectured but a different continent ( America is named after him); and Giovanni da Verrazzano , the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick in 1524. Marco da Nizza explored the region that later became Arizona and New Mexico in 1539. Henri de Tonti explored the Great Lakes region and co-founded New Orleans. Italian missionaries, including Alessandro Geraldini , François-Joseph Bressani , and Eusebio Kino , played

5300-399: The Opici were Ausones and placed them in Campania . Strabo , however, the chief source for the fragments of Antiochus, himself distinguished between the Osci and the Ausones, remarking that the Osci had disappeared, but the Romans still used their dialect as a literary language, and that the "high sea" near Sicily was still named Ausonian even though the Ausonians never lived near it. Aurunci

5400-410: The Papacy appealed to the Franks for aid. In 756 Frankish forces defeated the Lombards and gave the Papacy legal authority over much of central Italy, establishing the Papal States . In 800, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire . After the death of Charlemagne (814), the new empire disintegrated under his weak successors, resulting in a power vacuum in Italy and coinciding with

5500-464: The Papacy regained its authority. The Investiture controversy , over whether secular authorities had any legitimate role in appointments to ecclesiastical offices, was resolved by the Concordat of Worms in 1122, although problems continued in many areas of Europe until the end of the medieval era. In the north, a Lombard League of communes launched a successful effort to win autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire, defeating Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at

5600-425: The Republic faced a period of political crisis and social unrest. Julius Caesar reconciled the two more powerful men in Rome: Marcus Licinius Crassus and Pompey . In 53 BC, the Triumvirate disintegrated at the death of Crassus. After being victorious in the Gallic Wars , Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Rome in 49 BC, rapidly defeating Pompey. Caesar was eventually granted a dictatorship for perpetuity but

5700-588: The Romans defeated the Latin League , taking away the sovereignty of its tribal states, who subsequently assimilated to Rome. The consul, Lucius Furius Camillus, asked the Senate: "Do you wish to adopt ruthless measures against a people that have surrendered and been defeated? ... Or do you wish to follow the example of your ancestors and make Rome greater by conferring her citizenship on those whom she has defeated?" The Senate chose to offer different terms to different Latin cities. Colonists were placed throughout Latium. The Aurunci and Sidicini, who had been perforce in

5800-406: The Sidicini, the Aurunci and the Ausones . The Sidicini's capital city was Teanum , which minted its own coins bearing inscriptions in the Oscan language . The town of Cales was the capital of the Ausones . The beginning of the end of Oscan sovereignty was their attempted exploitation of an opportunity to maraud against the Romans in the period of instability following a major victory against

5900-451: The Sidicini. In 335, the Romans sent a consular army under Marcus Valerius Corvus to lay siege to Cales. Informed by an escaped prisoner (who broke his chains and climbed the wall in plain sight without being observed) that the enemy were all drunk and sleeping, Corvus took the city in a night-time rout and garrisoned it. The Senate voted to send 2,500 colonists, to whom enemy land was distributed. The Ausoni were never again sovereign. After

6000-480: The Sidicini. The Senate bought peace by ratifying the treaty and paying off their army. The Samnites used their army to attack the Sidicini again. In desperation, the latter offered themselves to Rome but were turned down on the grounds that they were too late. The Sidicini allied with a force being raised by the Latin league against the Samnites. They were joined by the Campanians. A multi-national army began to devastate Samnium. The Samnites now appealed to Rome under

6100-419: The armies of Eastern Emperor Justinian entered Italy with the goal of re-establishing imperial Roman rule, which led to the Gothic War that devastated the whole country with famine and epidemics. This ultimately allowed another Germanic tribe, the Lombards , to take control over vast regions of Italy. In 751 the Lombards seized Ravenna , ending Byzantine rule in northern Italy. Facing a new Lombard offensive,

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6200-410: The assistance of the Aurunci, seat unknown. Two consular armies sent against them won after a hard-fought battle in which "many more were killed than were taken prisoners; the prisoners were everywhere butchered, even the hostages ... fell a victim to the enemy's bloodthirsty rage". The enemy fell back on Pometia, which was besieged by the Romans. The Aurunci sallied out, burned the siege towers, massacred

6300-412: The centre of Spanish resistance in the 140s and 130s BC. Numantia fell and was razed to the ground in 133 BC. In 105 BC, the Celtiberians drove the Cimbri and Teutones from northern Spain, though these had crushed Roman arms in southern Gaul, inflicting 80,000 casualties on the Roman army. The conquest of Hispania was completed in 19 BC—but at a heavy cost. Towards the end of the 2nd century BC,

6400-411: The city prospers. Smith accords with the general conclusion that between 335 and 326, most likely in 334, the Sidicini consented to lay down their arms and become part of the greater Roman municipality. Livy's omission remains unexplained. The Aurunci similarly disappeared from tradition after they became subject to Rome. After the Samnites were pacified, the region kept the peace and was prosperous. It

6500-409: The civil wars, were reduced to 28. As provinces were being established throughout the Mediterranean, Roman Italy maintained a special status which made it Domina Provinciarum ("ruler of the provinces"), and – especially in relation to the first centuries of imperial stability – Rectrix Mundi ("governor of the world") and Omnium Terrarum Parens ("parent of all lands"). Such

6600-441: The demographic and economic disaster of the late Middle Ages led to a resurgence of cities, trade and economy. Italy was the main centre of the Renaissance, whose flourishing of the arts, architecture, literature, science, historiography, and political theory influenced all of Europe. The Renaissance represented a "rebirth" not only of economy and urbanization but also of arts and science, fuelled by rediscoveries of ancient texts and

6700-444: The dominant people of the Mediterranean. The conquest of the Hellenistic kingdoms provoked a fusion between Roman and Greek cultures and the Roman elite, once rural, became a luxurious and cosmopolitan one. By this time Rome was a consolidated empire – in the military view – and had no major enemies. Roman armies occupied Spain in the early 2nd century BC but encountered stiff resistance. The Celtiberian stronghold of Numantia became

6800-414: The dominant players. These three powers agreed to the Peace of Lodi in 1454, which saw relative calm brought to the region for the next forty years. At sea, the main contenders were Pisa, Genoa, and Venice, but after a long conflict, the Genoese succeeded in reducing Pisa. Venice proved to be a more powerful adversary, and with the decline of Genoese power during the 15th century Venice became pre-eminent on

6900-453: The early 1st millennium BC, a fourth wave, the Proto-Villanovan culture , brought iron-working to the Italian peninsula. Proto-Villanovan culture may have been part of the central European Urnfield culture system, or a derivation from Terramare culture. Various authors, such as Marija Gimbutas , associated this culture with the spread of the proto- Italics into the Italian Peninsula . Born in Sardinia and southern Corsica (where it

7000-401: The establishment of an Italian nation-state. The new Kingdom of Italy quickly modernized and built a colonial empire , controlling parts of Africa and countries along the Mediterranean. At the same time, Southern Italy remained rural and poor, originating the Italian diaspora . In World War I , Italy completed the unification by acquiring Trento and Trieste , and gained a permanent seat in

7100-416: The fall of Cales, both consular armies were sent against the Sidicini , who fortified themselves in Teanum with a large army. Livy does not reveal the outcome of this campaign. The Romans were struck by a plague (the most typical plague in the region was malaria , carried by the marsh mosquitos); both consuls were relieved for suspicion of impiety, but the Roman army remained among the Sidicini. Livy changes

7200-527: The first half of the 5th century, the new international political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse . A few years later, in 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae . Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and it

7300-445: The foundation of modern philosophy , especially modern political philosophy . It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time. The Italian Renaissance was remarkable in economic development. Venice and Genoa were trade pioneers, first as maritime republics and then as regional states, followed by Milan, Florence, and the rest of northern Italy. Reasons for their early development include

7400-501: The last of the seven kings of Rome, Tarquin the Proud , was deposed by Lucius Junius Brutus . A system based on annually elected magistrates and various representative assemblies was established. A constitution set a series of checks and balances, and a separation of powers . The most important magistrates were the two consuls, who together exercised executive authority as imperium , or military command. The consuls had to work with

7500-464: The leadership of the city of Alba Longa . An incomplete fragment of an inscription recorded by Cato the Elder claims that at one time the league included Tusculum , Aricia , Lanuvium , Lavinium , Cora , Tibur , Pometia and Ardea . During the reign of Tarquinius Superbus , the Latins were persuaded to acknowledge the leadership of Rome. The treaty with Rome was renewed, and it was agreed that

7600-455: The league. The renewal of the original treaty in 358 BC formally established Roman leadership and eventually triggered the outbreak of the Latin War (343–338 BC). Following the Roman victory, the league was dissolved. After 338 BC, the end of the Latin league, Rome renamed the cities municipia and established coloniae inside them. This meant that the towns were now ruled by Rome (or

7700-574: The main instruments and practices of banking and new forms of social and economic organization. During the same period, Italy saw the rise of the Maritime Republics : Venice , Genoa , Pisa , Amalfi , Ragusa , Ancona , Gaeta and Noli . From the 10th to the 13th centuries these cities built fleets of ships for their own protection and to support extensive trade networks across the Mediterranean, leading to an essential role in

7800-463: The march for Rome, they sent envoys ahead to demand the withdrawal of the Romans from Volscian territory. The consul Publius Servilus Priscus Structus met them on the march at Arricia and "in one battle finished the war". No more is heard of the Oscans for almost a century. In the last half of the 4th century BC, the remaining Oscan populations (who were not Samnites ) lived in three sovereign states:

7900-437: The merchant republics enjoyed relative political freedom. During this period, many Italian cities developed republican forms of government, such as the republics of Florence , Lucca , Genoa , Venice and Siena . During the 13th and 14th centuries these cities became major financial and commercial centres. Milan, Florence and Venice, among other city-states, played a crucial innovative role in financial development, devising

8000-476: The migration west into Italy of intellectuals fleeing the Eastern Roman Empire . The fall of Constantinople led to the migration of Greek scholars and texts to Italy, fueling the rediscovery of Greco-Roman Humanism . Humanist rulers such as Federico da Montefeltro and Pope Pius II worked to establish ideal cities , founding Urbino and Pienza respectively. Pico della Mirandola wrote

8100-570: The origins of the Etruscans are that they are indigenous, probably stemming from the Villanovan culture , or that they are the result of invasion from the north or the Near East . A 2007 study has suggested a Near Eastern origin. The researchers conclude that their data, taken from the modern Tuscan population, "support the scenario of a post-Neolithic genetic input from the Near East to

8200-715: The period of the arrival of the Greek and Phoenician immigrants, Sicily was already inhabited by native Italics in three major groups: the Elymians in the west, the Sicani in the centre, and the Sicels (source of the name Sicily) in the east. It is generally believed that around 2000 BC , the Ligures occupied a large area of the peninsula, including much of north-western Italy and all of northern Tuscany. Since many scholars consider

8300-400: The present-day population of Tuscany". In the absence of any dating evidence, there is however no direct link between this genetic input and the Etruscans. By contrast, a mitochondrial DNA study of 2013 has suggested that the Etruscans were probably an indigenous population. Among ancient populations, ancient Etruscans are found to be closest to a Neolithic population from Central Europe. It

8400-446: The relative military safety of Venetian lagoons, the high population density and the institutional structure which inspired entrepreneurs. Venice was the first real international financial center , which slowly emerged from the 9th century to its peak in the 14th century. Tradeable bonds were invented during this period. Italian explorers and navigators from the dominant maritime republics , eager to find an alternative route to

8500-814: The rise of Islam in North Africa and the Middle East. In the South, there were attacks from the Umayyad Caliphate and the Abbasid Caliphate . In the North, there was a rising power of communes . In 852, the Saracens took Bari and founded an emirate there. Islamic rule over Sicily was effective from 902. In the 11th century, trade slowly recovered as the cities started to grow again and

8600-533: The seas. Latin League The Latin League ( c.  8th century – 338 BC) was an ancient confederation of about 30 villages and tribes in the region of Latium near the ancient city of Rome , organized for mutual defense. The term "Latin League" is one coined by modern historians with no precise Latin equivalent. The Latin League was originally created for protection against enemies from surrounding areas (the Etruscans ) under

8700-466: The shifts on the calendar promoted by Caesar, and the month of August is named after him. Augustus' enlightened rule resulted in 200 years of peace for the Empire, known as Pax Romana . Despite its military strength, the Empire made few efforts to expand, the most notable being the conquest of Britain , begun by emperor Claudius (47), and emperor Trajan 's conquest of Dacia (101–102, 105–106). In

8800-588: The south fell under Roman domination. It was held by the Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome in the West and even the Lombards failed to consolidate it, though the centre of the south was theirs from Zotto 's conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century. Little is certain about the history of the Roman Kingdom, as nearly no written records from that time survive, and the histories written during

8900-481: The statue; a Latin envoy, Lucius Annaeus, slipped on the stairs while railing against Jupiter and hit his head, becoming unconscious. At that moment, a thunderstorm burst on the Senate House. Interpreting these events as a sign the Romans declared war on the Latins and their allies and allied themselves with the Samnites. The two years of conflict, 340–338, is known as the Latin War . In a number of legendary battles,

9000-419: The terms of the treaty. As the price for submitting to Rome, the Latins demanded a new common government, with one consul and half the Senate to be elected from the Latins. When Titus Manlius Torquatus , one of the consuls for 340 BC, heard these conditions, he swore by Jupiter's statue that if the Senate accepted them he would kill every Latin in the Senate House with drawn sword. Emotional posturing began around

9100-586: The terms of their treaty, asking if in fact, Rome was sovereign over Campania. The Romans disavowed any agreement that would restrain the Campanians and Latins from making war on whomever else they pleased. Encouraged by Roman refusal to assume leadership, the Latins made plans to turn their army against Rome once the Samnite threat had been neutralized. Word of the plans leaked to the Romans, who reacted by inviting ten Latin chiefs to Rome to receive orders under

9200-485: The topic to relations with the Samnites in preparation for his account of the Second Samnite War (326–304 BC). The Sidicini do not appear in that war or ever again in history, but Teanum goes on as Teanum Sidicinum and its territory as Sidicinus ager. If the Romans had fought a great battle and had obliterated the Sidicini there would be some mention of it or some evidence of a discontinuity at Teano. Instead,

9300-521: The troops and grievously wounded one of the consuls. The Romans withdrew but returned later in greater force. Taking the town, they beheaded the Aurunci officers, sold the Pometians into slavery, levelled the buildings and put the land up for sale. The Aurunci appear one more time in the early republic in a failed attempt to support the Volsci in their struggle against Rome. In 495 BC, putting an army on

9400-512: The troops of the Latins would attend on an appointed day to form a united military force with the troops of Rome. That was done, and Tarquin formed combined units of Roman and Latin troops. The early Roman Republic formed an alliance with the Latin League in 493 BC. According to Roman tradition, the treaty, the Foedus Cassianum , followed a Roman victory over the league in the Battle of Lake Regillus . It provided that both Rome and

9500-946: Was a popular vacation spot, being on high ground away from the pestilential air, which today is recognized to be the malaria mosquito. Their debauchery was adopted by the larger Roman society over time, and the term Osci loqui or Obsci loqui came to mean licentious or lewd language. Another vestige of the Oscans at Rome was the Atellan Farce , also known as the Oscan Games, which were masked improvised farces in Ancient Rome . The Oscan athletic games were very popular, and usually preceded by longer pantomime plays. History of Italy Timeline The European country of Italy has been inhabited by humans since at least 850,000 years ago. Since classical antiquity, ancient Etruscans , various Italic peoples (such as

9600-478: Was further divided by the long-running battle for supremacy between the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire . Warfare between the states was common, and invasion from outside Italy was confined to intermittent sorties of Holy Roman Emperors . Since the 13th century, as armies became primarily composed of mercenaries , prosperous city-states could field considerable forces despite their low populations. Over

9700-611: Was murdered in 44 BC. Caesar's assassination caused political and social turmoil; without the dictator's leadership, Rome was ruled by his friend and colleague, Mark Antony . Octavian (Caesar's adopted son), along with Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus , established the Second Triumvirate . Lepidus was forced to retire in 36 BC after betraying Octavian in Sicily . Antony settled in Egypt with his lover, Cleopatra VII , which

9800-434: Was seen as an act of treason. Following Antony's Donations of Alexandria , which gave Cleopatra the title of "Queen of Kings", and to their children the regal titles to the newly conquered Eastern territories, war between Octavian and Mark Antony broke out. Octavian annihilated Egyptian forces in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. Mark Antony and Cleopatra committed suicide. Rome thus possessed unchallenged naval supremacy in

9900-514: Was taken over by Romans and Samnites . In the 4th century, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po valley and the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of their north provinces. Etruscia was assimilated by Rome around 500 BC. The Italic peoples were an ethnolinguistic group identified by use of Italic languages . Among

10000-469: Was the Samnites , who rivalled Rome for about 50 years in the second half of the 4th century BC, sometimes being allies, and sometimes at war with the city, until they were finally subdued with considerable difficulty and were incorporated into the Roman state. The Osci kept their independence by playing one state against another, especially the Romans and Samnites. Their sovereignty was finally lost during

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