Roman Republic, Early Iron Age: Early Peoples of Italy 

In the north from about 900 BC onwards two main cremating cultures can be distinguished: the Golaseccans in Piedmont and Lombardy, and the Atestines (Roman Veneti) around Ateste (=Este) in Veneto. Ateste, profiting from its position on the edge of the Po Plain, flourished down to the invasion of the Celts in the fourth century BC.

In Central Italy the Picentes (Marche) were probably invaders from Illyria who mingled with the indigenous population. They seem to have had little artistic ability, but their position on the east coast enabled them to achieve economic prosperity by acting as intermediaries for maritime trade.

Linguistic research shows that until Roman rule spread Latin throughout the peninsula there were around forty languages or dialects present in Italy. Many of these are grouped together as the Italic branch of Indo-European (IE) with three sub-groups: Umbro-Sabellian (US), aka Osco-Umbrian, in the central mountains and south; Latin (L) along the lower Tiber; and Venetic (V) in the northeast. Also present were three significant Indo-European languages having no particular affinities to the any of the above or each other: Greek in the southern peninsula and Sicily; Celtic (C) in the north, and Messapic (M), probably related to Illyrian across the Adriatic, on the east coast in Apulia. The principal non-Indo-European language at this time was Etruscan (nIE) on the west coast.

Ligurians (US) occupied the northwest; the Veneti (V) the northeast; and the Latins (L) held Latium, the plain south of the Tiber in Central Italy. The Etruscans inhabited the land north of the Tiber. Peoples speaking Umbro-Sebellian occupied the valleys of the central and southern Apennines.