The Umbri were Italic peoples of ancient Italy. The region called Umbria still exists and is now occupied by Italian speakers.
It is somewhat smaller than the ancient Umbria.
Umbria have been inhabited by several ethnic groups over time.
Most ancient Umbrian cities were settled in the 9th-4th centuries BC on easily defensible hilltops. Umbria was bordered by the Tiber and Nar rivers and included the Apennine slopes on the Adriatic. The ancient Umbrian language is a branch of a group called Oscan-Umbrian, which is related to the Latino-Faliscan languages.
The Umbrian people are thought the oldest in Italy; they are believed to have been called Ombrii (here, "the people of the thunderstorm," after ὅμβρος, "thunderstorm") by the Greeks because they survived the deluge (literally "the inundation of the lands by thunderstorms, imbribus). The Etruscans vanquished 300 Umbrian cities.
The Etruscan civilization, created by the Etruscans, was an ancient civilization that inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy. They formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, their territory covered what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio, as well as parts of the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and western Campania.
The Etruscans were an indigenous population, and their culture flourished during the Iron Age Villanovan period, around 900 BC. They developed a system of writing derived from the Euboean alphabet, which was used in coastal areas of Southern Italy. Etruscan civilization dominated Italy until it fell to the expanding Roman Empire in the late 4th century BC. The Etruscans left a significant mark on the region, and their legacy can still be seen in art, architecture, and historical sites1.
Interestingly, Umbria played a crucial role in Etruscan history. According to Herodotus, the Etruscans migrated from Lydia (western Anatolia) in the 13th century BC and settled in Umbria and beyond, giving rise to Etruria. By the 7th century BC, they were the most powerful people in Italy, thanks to their exploitation of mines in Elba and along the Tuscan coast.
The Etruscans gradually came under Roman control during the 4th to 2nd centuries BC.
The Roman conquest led to the assimilation of Umbria into the Roman Republic. However, the Umbrian language ceased to be widely spoken.
Roman Umbria extended from Narni in the south, northeastward to the vicinity of Ravenna on the Adriatic coast. Interestingly, this included a large part of central Italy that now belongs to the Marche region.
Notably, the Sabine country (around modern Norcia) and the right bank of the Tiber, inhabited by Etruscans, were excluded from Roman Umbria.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Umbria became a strategic battleground. It was fiercely contested by various powers, including the Church, the Lombards, and the Byzantines.
This tumultuous period led to Umbria being partitioned among these factions and eventually fading from historical prominence.
Interestingly, the modern use of the term “Umbria” emerged during the 17th century, reflecting a renaissance of local identity