Since the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C. the Umbrians settled in the landscape named after them Umbria in central Italy. There they had organized themselves into small city-states.
Umbrian was written from the 5th to the 1st century BC. In the Battle of Mevania (308 BC) the Umbrians were defeated by the Romans. The establishment of Roman colonies and the construction of the Via Flaminia encouraged the acculturation and assimilation of the Umbrian population.