Roman expansion in Italy in the context of "Ancient peoples of Italy"

The Etruscans (/ɪˈtrʌskən/ ih-TRUS-kən) created a civilization in Etruria in ancient Italy, with a common language and culture, and formed a federation of city-states. After adjacent lands had been conquered, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now Tuscany, western Umbria and northern Lazio, as well as what are now the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto and western Campania.

A large body of literature has flourished on the origins of the Etruscans, but the consensus among modern scholars is that the Etruscans were an indigenous population. The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900 BC. This is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture, considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in the same region, part of the central European Urnfield culture system. Etruscan civilization dominated Italy until it fell to the expanding Rome beginning in the late 4th century BC as a result of the Roman–Etruscan Wars; Etruscans were granted Roman citizenship in 90 BC and in 27 BC the whole Etruscan territory was incorporated into the newly established Roman Empire.

Roman Italy is the period of ancient Italian history going from the founding and rise of Rome to the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire; the Latin name of the Italian peninsula in this period was Italia (continued to be used in the Italian language). According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home of Aeneas, being the homeland of the Trojans progenitor, Dardanus; Aeneas, instructed by Jupiter, moved to Italy after the fall of Troy, and his descendants, Romulus and Remus, were the founders of Rome. Aside from the legendary accounts, Rome was an Italic city-state that changed its form of government from Kingdom (ruled, between 753 BC and 509 BC, by seven kings) to Republic, and then grew within the context of a peninsula dominated by the Gauls, Ligures, Veneti, Camunni and Histri in the North; the Etruscans, Latins, Falisci, Picentes, Umbri and Sabines in the Centre; and the Iapygian tribes (such as the Messapians), the Oscan tribes (such as the Samnites) and Greek colonies in the South.

The consolidation of Italy into a single entity occurred during the Roman expansion in the peninsula, when Rome formed a permanent association with most of other the local tribes and cities; and Italy's inhabitants included Roman citizens, communities with Latin Rights, and socii. The strength of the Italian confederacy was a crucial factor in the rise of Rome, starting with the Punic and Macedonian wars between the 3rd and 2nd century BC. As Roman provinces were being established throughout the Mediterranean, Italy maintained a special status with political, religious and financial privileges. In Italy, Roman magistrates exercised the imperium domi (police power), as an alternative to the imperium militiae (military power) exercised in the provinces.

Milan (/mɪˈlæn/ mil-AN, US also /mɪˈlɑːn/ mil-AHN, Milanese: [miˈlãː] ; Italian: Milano [miˈlaːno] ) is the regional capital of Lombardy, in northern Italy, and the second-most populous city in Italy, with a population of 1.36 million in 2025. The Metropolitan City of Milan is the largest city in Italy by urban area. Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Italy, and the fourth-largest in the European Union, with an estimated population of 6.1 million.

Founded around 590 BC by a Celtic tribe, Milan was conquered by the Romans in 222 BC, who Latinized the name of the city into Mediolanum and made it the capital of the Western Roman Empire. In the Late Medieval period, the wealthy Duchy of Milan was one of the greatest forces behind the Renaissance. As a major center of the Italian Enlightenment during the Early modern period, Milan's cultural and political struggle against Austrian domination was crucial in the reunification of the Kingdom of Italy. From the 19th century onwards, Milan led the industrial and financial development of Italy.

The socii (English: /ˈsoʊʃiaɪ/ SOH-shee-eye) or foederati (English: /ˌfɛdəˈreɪtaɪ/ FED-ə-RAY-ty) were confederates of Rome and formed one of the three legal denominations in Roman Italy (Italia) along with the core Roman citizens (Cives Romani) and the extended Latini. The Latini, who were simultaneously special confederates (Socii Latini) and semi-citizens (Cives Latini), derived their name from the Italic people of which Rome was part (the Latins) but did not coincide with the region of Latium in central Italy as they were located in colonies throughout the peninsula. This tripartite organisation lasted from the Roman expansion in Italy (509-264 BC) to the Social War (91–87 BC), when all peninsular inhabitants south of the Po river were awarded Roman citizenship.

Treaties known as foedus served as the basic template for Rome's settlement with the large array of tribes and city-states of the whole Italian peninsula. The confederacy had its origin in the foedus Cassianum ("Treaty of Cassius", 493 BC) signed by the fledgling Roman Republic with its neighbouring Latin city-states shortly after the overthrow of the Roman monarchy in 510 BC. This provided for mutual defence by the two parties on the basis of an equal contribution to the annual military levy, which was probably under Roman overall command. The terms of the treaty were probably more acceptable to the Latins than the previous type of Roman hegemony, that of the Tarquin kings, as the latter had probably required the payment of tribute and not a simple military obligation.

Latin rights or Latin citizenship (Latin: ius Latii or ius latinum) were a set of legal rights that were originally granted to the Latins and therefore in their colonies (Latium adiectum). Latinitas was commonly used by Roman jurists to denote this status. With the Roman expansion in Italy, many settlements and coloniae outside of Latium had Latin rights.

All the Latini of Italy obtained Roman citizenship as a result of three laws which were introduced during the Social War between the Romans and their allies among the Italic peoples (socii) which rebelled against Rome. The Lex Iulia de Civitate Latinis (et sociis) Danda of 90 BC conferred Roman citizenship on all citizens of the Latin towns and the Italic towns who had not rebelled. The Lex Plautia Papiria de Civitate Sociis Danda of 89 BC granted Roman citizenship to all federated towns in Italy south of the River Po (in northern Italy). The Lex Pompeia de Transpadanis of 89 BC granted the ius Latii to the communities of Transpadania, a region north of the Po, which had sided with Rome during the Social War. It also granted Roman citizenship to those who became officials in their respective municipia (cities).