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PICENUM

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 581 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PICENUM , a See also:

district of See also:ancient See also:Italy, situated between the See also:Apennines and the Adriatic, bounded N. by the See also:Senones and S. by the See also:Vestini. The inhabitants were, according to tradition, an offshoot of the Sabines. See also:Strabo (v. 4, I) gives the See also:story of their See also:migration, led by a See also:woodpecker (See also:picus), a See also:bird sacred to See also:Mars, from which they derived their name Picentini (cf. See also:Dion. Ital. i. 14, r), just as the See also:Hirpini derived theirs from hirpus, a See also:wolf. The district was conquered by the See also:Romans See also:early in the 3rd See also:century Inc. and the whole territory was divided up among Latin-speaking settlers by the Lex See also:Flaminia in 232 B.C. Hence we have very scanty records of any non-Latin See also:Language that may have been spoken in the district before the 3rd century. Besides the problematic See also:inscriptions from Belmonte, Nereto and See also:Cupra Maritima (see See also:SABELLIC), we have one or two Latin inscriptions (probably of the 2nd or even the 1st century B.C.) which contain certain forms showing a distinct See also:affinity with the See also:dialect of See also:Iguvium (cf. the name Pasdi=Latin Pacidii). Hence there seems some ground for believing that the See also:population which the Romans dispossessed, or held in subjection, really spoke a dialect very much like that of their neighbours in See also:Umbria. For inscriptions, see R.

S. See also:

Conway, The See also:Italic Dialects, p. 449, where the See also:place-names and See also:personal names of the district will also he found; see further, See also:Livy, Epit. xv.; B. V. See also:Head, Historia See also:nun:arum, p. 1g. (R. S. C.) It was in Picenum, at Asculum, that the Social See also:War See also:broke out in 90 B.C. At the end of the war the district became connected with Pompeius Strabo, and his son See also:Pompey the See also:Great threw intothe See also:scale on the See also:side of See also:Sulla, in 83 B.C., all the See also:influence he possessed there, and hoped to make it a See also:base against See also:Caesar's legions in 49 B.C. Under See also:Augustus it formed the fifth region of Italy, and included twenty-three See also:independent communities, of which five, See also:Ancona, Firmum, Asculum, See also:Hadria and Interamnia, were coloniae. It was reached from See also:Rome by the Via See also:Salaria, and its See also:branch the Via See also:Caecilia.

It was also on a branch leading from the Via Flarninia at Nuceria Camellaria to Septempeda. There were also communications from See also:

north to See also:south; a road led from Asculum to Urbs See also:Salvia and Ancona, another from Asculum and Firmum and the See also:coast, another from Urbs Salvia to Potentia, while finally along the whole See also:line of the coast there ran a prolongation of the Via Flaminia, the name of which is not known to us. At the end of the and century A.D. the north-eastern portion of Umbria was divided from the See also:rest and acquired the name Flaminia, from the high road. For the See also:time it remained See also:united with Umbria for administrative purposes, but passed to Picenum at latest in the time of See also:Constantine, and acquired the name of Flaminia et Picenum Annonarium, the See also:main portion of Picenum being distinguished as Suburbicarium. In an inscription of A.D. 309 See also:Ravenna is actually spoken of as the See also:chief See also:town of Picenum. When the exarchate of Ravenna was founded the See also:part of Picenum Annonarium near the See also:sea became the Pentapolis Maritima, which included the five cities of See also:Ariminum, See also:Pisaurum, Fanum Fortunae, Sena Gallica and Ancona. The exarchate was seized by Luitprand in 727, and Ravenna itself was taken by Aistulf in 752. In the next See also:year, however, the See also:Emperor See also:Pippin took it from him and handed it over to the See also:pope, a See also:grant confirmed by his son See also:Charlemagne. (T.

End of Article: PICENUM

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