Marche was known in ancient times as the
Picenum territory. The first period of cultural unity of the Marches was in the
Iron Age, when the region was almost entirely inhabited by the
Picentes. Many artefacts from their time are exhibited in
National Archaeological Museum of the Marche Region in Ancona. In the fourth century BC, the northern area was occupied by the
Senones, a tribe of
Gauls. The
Battle of Sentinum was fought in Marche in 295 BC; afterwards, the
Romans founded numerous colonies in the area, connected to Rome by the
Via Flaminia and the
Via Salaria.
Ascoli was a seat of Italic resistance during the
Social War (91–87 BC). Following the fall of the
Western Roman Empire, the region was invaded by the
Goths. After the
Gothic War, it was part of the
Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna (
Ancona,
Fano,
Pesaro,
Rimini, and
Senigallia forming the so-called
Pentapolis). After the fall of the Exarchate, it was briefly in the possession of the
Lombards, but was conquered by
Charlemagne in the late eighth century. In the ninth to eleventh centuries, the marches of
Camerino,
Fermo and
Ancona were created, hence the modern name. Marche was nominally part of the
Papal States, but most of the territory was under local lords, while the major cities ruled themselves as free communes. In the twelfth century, the
commune of Ancona resisted both the
imperial authority of
Frederick Barbarossa and the
Republic of Venice, and was a
maritime republic on its own. An attempt to restore Papal suzerainty by
Gil de Albornoz in the fourteenth century was short-lived. During the
Renaissance, the region was fought over by rival aristocratic families, such as the
Malatesta of Rimini,
Pesaro,
Fano and the house of
Montefeltro of
Urbino. The last independent entity, the
Duchy of Urbino, was dissolved in 1631, and from then on, Marche was firmly part of the
Papal States, where many towns were governed by hereditary urban patriciates (see
Civic nobility in the Papal States' March of Ancona). The Napoleonic period saw the short-lived
Republic of Ancona, in 1797–98; the merging of the region with the
Roman Republic in 1798–99, and with the
Kingdom of Italy from 1808 to 1813; and the short occupation by
Joachim Murat in 1815. After Napoleon's defeat, Marche returned to Papal rule until 4 November 1860, when it was annexed to the
unified Kingdom of Italy by a
plebiscite. The
Bombardment of Ancona occurred during the
Adriatic campaign of World War I. The
1916 Rimini earthquakes damaged or destroyed several buildings in Pesaro, Fano, and its
hinterlands. The
Battle of Ancona occurred during the
Italian campaign of World War II. After the referendum of 2006, seven municipalities of
Montefeltro were detached from the
Province of Pesaro and Urbino to join the
Province of Rimini (
Emilia-Romagna) on 15 August 2009. The municipalities are
Casteldelci,
Maiolo,
Novafeltria,
Pennabilli,
San Leo,
Sant'Agata Feltria and
Talamello. Towns in Marche were devastated by many powerful earthquakes during the centuries, the last time in 2016 (in
August and in
October). In
September 2022, Marche was hit by heavy flooding. == Geography ==