Central Italy and Rome

During the first millennium BCE, central Italy was a mosaic of different peoples, each with its own culture and language. Modern-day Latium was settled by Latins and other minor peoples such as Sabines, Faliscans, Hernici, and Volsci. There were other populations in the adjacent regions, too—Umbrians in Umbria, several tribes in Abruzzo, and Picenes in the Marches. Handicrafts suggest that Etruscans were in touch with their neighbors mostly as traders, although geographic mobility is documented by inscriptions. In the case of inscriptions, individuals of high social rank were granted foreign citizenships at the same social level they had at home. The cultural contacts between Etruscans and their neighbors changed through the ages and were not of only one kind.