Ager Gallicus

The territory corresponds to the portion of the modern Marche region lying north of the Esino river, on the coast Adriatic Sea.

[4] In order to control the population and mercantile activities of the Ager, the Romans also founded the coastal colonies of Ariminum (Rimini), Pisaurum (Pesaro) and Fanum Fortunae (Fano).

The administration of the inland was organized in 232 BC by the Lex Flaminia de agro Gallico et Piceno viritim dividendo, which created a network of prefectures (praefecturae), some of which, in the mid-1st century BC, were granted the status of municipia: Aesis (Iesi), Suasa, Ostra, and Forum Sempronii (Fossombrone).

which was now connected to the seat of power by the consular road that traversed it along the Metauro river valley.

Some scholars see in this new name, which for the first time included the word "Picenum", as an acknowledgement (albeit belated) by Rome of the Italic people known as the Piceni, which had lived in the area between the 10th and 4th century BC.