The Po Valley has always been a place of interaction between the ancient Veneti and other peoples, particularly the Etruscans settled north of the Apennines (in Bologna and in the ports of Adria and Spina, founded in the 6th century B.C.), and the Celtic peoples, increasingly present after the migrations of the 4th century B.C. from central and western Europe.
The relationship between the Celts and the Veneti varied from the occupation of the province of Verona by the Cenomani to the absorption in Venetian cities of foreign people or groups. From the 3rd century B.C. Rome also appeared in northern Italy, intensifying its presence during the 2nd century B.C., after defeating the Celtic peoples, with the construction of great roads and the founding of cities.
The sources record several instances of alliance of the Veneti with Rome, and there is no evidence of conflict, but rather of a process of gradual integration, cultural and political, of the Venetian world into the Roman one, up to the granting of citizenship in 49 BC.
