The Picentes or Picentini are Latin exonyms for the people who live in Picenum in the northern Adriatic coastal plain of ancient Italy.

The endonym, if any, and its language are not known for certain.The definition of Picenum depends on the time period.

The region between the Appennines and the Adriatic Sea south of Ancona (originally a Greek colony) is in Picenum during the entire early historic period.

Between Ancona and Rimini to the north the population is multi-ethnic.

In the Roman Republic it is Gallia Togata, but the Gauls are known to have combined or supplanted earlier populations.

The ager Gallicus, as it is called, is considered both Gaul and Picenum.

Under the Roman Empire, the coast south of Rimini is united or reunited with the country south of Ancona as Picenum.

By this time the only language spoken wis Latin.From Ancona southward,a language of the Umbrian Group is spoken, today called South Picene.

It is attested mainly in inscriptions.

Umbrian is an Italic language.

North of Ancona around Pesaro a totally different language is attested by four inscriptions, only one of any length, termed for convenience North Picene.

It is unknown and a language isolate.

Some authors without evidence have given it the Picene tag on the theory that it may represent an original language spoken in all of Picenum south of Rimini.