Editing Umbria (section)

==History==
{{See also|List of museums in Umbria}}

===Antiquity===
The region is named for the [[Umbri]] people, an [[Italic people]] which was absorbed by the expansion of the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]. The Umbri, unlike the Etruscans, with few exceptions did not live in an urban society, but occupied small dwellings located in the Apennines.<ref name =ron>Roncalli (1988), p.397</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] recounted a fanciful derivation for the tribal name from the Greek ὄμβρος (''ombros'', "a shower"), which led to the idea that they had survived the Deluge familiar from Greek mythology, allowing them to claim to be the most ancient race in Italy.<ref>Pliny the Elder, ''The Natural History'', 3.6; 3.19.</ref> In fact, they belonged to a broader family of neighbouring peoples with similar roots. Their language was [[Umbrian language|Umbrian]], one of the [[Italic languages]], related to [[Latin]] and [[Oscan language|Oscan]]. The town of [[Gubbio]] houses today the longest and most important document of any of the [[Osco-Umbrian]] group of languages, the [[Iguvine Tablets]], written in Umbrian at the turn of the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.<ref name=tci243>AA. VV. (2004), p. 243</ref> The northern part of the region was occupied by [[Gauls|Gallic]] tribes.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

The Umbri probably sprang, like neighbouring peoples, from the creators of the [[Terramara]], and [[Proto-Villanovan culture]] in northern and central Italy, who entered north-eastern Italy at the beginning of the [[Bronze Age]].<ref name=EB1911/>

The [[Etruscans]] were the chief enemies of the Umbri. The Etruscan invasion extended from the western seaboard towards the north and east from about 700 to 500 BC. They eventually drove the Umbrians towards the [[Apennines|Apennine]] uplands and captured 300 Umbrian towns. Nevertheless, the Umbrian population does not seem to have been eradicated in the conquered districts.<ref name=EB1911/> The border between Etruria and Umbria was the Tiber river,<ref name=tci44>AA. VV. (2004), p. 44</ref> as testified by the ancient name of Todi, ''Tular'' ("border").<ref name=tci493>AA. VV. (2004), p. 493</ref>

After the downfall of the Etruscans, Umbrians aided the [[Samnium|Samnite]]s in their [[Samnite Wars|struggle]] against [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] (308 BC). Later communications with [[Samnium]] were impeded by the Roman fortress of [[Narni]]a (founded 229 BC on the place of the umbrian ''Nequinum'', conquered in 299 BC).<ref name=tci550>AA. VV. (2004), p. 550</ref><ref name=tci34/><ref name=EB1911/> Romans defeated the Samnites and their Gallic allies in the [[battle of Sentinum]] (295 BC).<ref name=tci34>AA. VV. (2004), p. 34</ref> Allied Umbrians and Etruscans had to return home and defend each of their territories against simultaneous Roman attacks, leaving the Samnites without their help at Sentinum.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

The Roman victory at Sentinum initiated a period of integration under the Roman rulers, who established some colonies, such as [[Spoletium]], and built the [[via Flaminia]] (219 BC).<ref name=tci34/> The via Flaminia became a principal vector for Roman development in Umbria.<ref name=tci34/> During [[Hannibal]]'s invasion during the [[second Punic war]], the [[battle of Lake Trasimene]] was fought inside the borders of today's Umbria,<ref name=tci34/> but the local people did not aid the invader.

During the [[Roman civil war]] between [[Mark Antony]] and [[Octavian]] (40 BC), the city of Perugia supported Antony and was almost completely destroyed by Octavian. In [[Pliny the Elder]]'s time, 49 independent communities still existed in Umbria, and the abundance of inscriptions and the high proportion of recruits in the [[Roman Army|imperial army]] attest to its population.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Umbria|inline=1}}</ref> Under Augustus, Umbria became [[Roman Umbria|the Regio VI]] of Roman Italy.<ref name=tci34/>

Modern Umbria is different from [[Roman Umbria]]. Roman Umbria extended through most of what is now the northern Marche to [[Ravenna]], but excluded the west bank of the Tiber, which belonged to Etruria.<ref name=tci34/> Thus [[Perusia|Perugia]] was an Etruscan city and the area around Norcia was in the [[Sabine]] territory.<ref name=tci464>AA. VV. (2004), p. 464</ref>

After the collapse of the [[Roman Empire]], [[Ostrogoths]] and [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantines]] struggled for supremacy in the region, and the [[Battle of Taginae|decisive battle]] of the war between these two peoples took place near modern [[Gualdo Tadino]].<ref name=tci405>AA. VV. (2004), p. 405</ref>

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Perugia Piazza IV Novembre.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Medieval city centre of [[Perugia]].]]
Soon after the end of the [[Gothic War (535–554)|Gothic war]], the [[Lombards]] invaded Italy and founded the [[duchy of Spoleto]], covering much of today's southern Umbria, but the Byzantine were able to keep in the region a corridor along the Via Flaminia linking Rome with the [[Exarchate of Ravenna]] and the [[Duchy of the Pentapolis|Pentapolis]].<ref name=tci34/> The Lombard king controlled also the northern part of the region ruled directly by Pavia. When [[Charlemagne]] conquered most of the Lombard kingdoms, some Umbrian territories were given to the Pope, who established temporal power over them.<ref name=tci35>AA. VV. (2004), p. 35</ref> Some cities acquired a form of autonomy named ''[[Medieval commune|comune]]''.<ref name=tci35/> These cities were frequently at war with each other, often in a context of more general conflicts, either between the [[Church State|Papacy]] and the [[Holy Roman Empire]] or between the [[Guelphs]] and the [[Ghibellines]].

In the early 14th century, the ''[[signoria|signorie]]'' arose and the most important of them were those of the [[Vitelli]] in [[Città di Castello]],<ref name=tci218>AA. VV. (2004), p. 218</ref> of the Baglioni in Perugia<ref name=tci108>AA. VV. (2004), p. 108</ref> and of the [[Trinci]] in [[Foligno]],<ref name=tci380>AA. VV. (2004), p. 380</ref> but the region was subsumed by the middle of the same century into the [[Papal States]] by [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] [[Gil Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz|Albornoz]],<ref name=tci39>AA. VV. (2004), p. 39</ref> who in this way prepared the return of the pope from [[Avignon]] to Rome. Città di Castello was subsumed later into the Papal States by [[Cesare Borgia]].<ref name=tci218>AA. VV. (2004), p. 218</ref> During the 15th century Renaissance spread in the northern part of the region. It was in this period that humanists started to use again the ancient denomination of "Umbria" to name the area,<ref name=tci37>AA. VV. (2004), p. 37</ref> which until then had been named "Ducato", after the [[Duchy of Spoleto]] in the southern part of it. The supremacy of the pope on Umbria was reinforced in 16th century through the erection of a fortress in Perugia by Pope [[Paul III]], named after him ''Rocca Paolina''. The papacy ruled the region uncontested until the end of the 18th century.<ref name=tci39/>

===Modern history===
After the [[French Revolution]] and the French conquest of Italy, Umbria became part of the ephemeral [[Roman Republic (18th century)|Roman Republic]] (1798–1799) and later, part of the [[Napoleonic Empire]] (1809–1814) under the name of department of [[Trasimène]].<ref name=tci39>AA. VV. (2004), p. 39</ref>

After Napoleon's defeat, the Pope regained Umbria and ruled it until 1860.<ref name=tci41>AA. VV. (2004), p. 41</ref> In that year, during Italian [[Risorgimento]], Umbria with Marche and part of Emilia Romagna were annexed by [[Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia|Piedmontese]] King [[Victor Emmanuel II]], and the people of Perugia destroyed in the same year the Rocca Paolina, symbol of the papal oppression.<ref name=tci41/> The region of Umbria, with capital Perugia, became part of the [[Kingdom of Italy]] in the following year.<ref name=tci41/> The region, whose economy was mainly based on agriculture, experienced a dramatic economic shift at the end of the 19th century with the founding of the ''Acciaierie di Terni'', a major steelwork placed in Terni because of its abundance of electric power due to the [[Marmore]] waterfall and its secluded position.<ref name=tci522>AA. VV. (2004), p. 522</ref>

The region of Umbria at the time was somewhat larger than today, comprising [[province of Rieti|Rieti]] to the south, now part of [[Lazio]].<ref name=tci41/> Rieti was detached and added to the Province of Rome (Lazio) in 1923.<ref name=tci41/> In 1927, the region of Umbria was divided into the provinces of Perugia and Terni.<ref name=tci41/>

During WWII, the industrial centers of the region like Terni and Foligno were heavily bombed and in 1944 became a battlefield between the allied forces and the Germans retreating towards the [[Gothic Line]].<ref name=tci43>AA. VV. (2004), p. 43</ref> In 1946, Umbria was incorporated into the [[Italian Republic]] as a [[regions of Italy|region]], comprising the two provinces of Perugia and Terni.<ref name=tci43/>