Short answers, pulled from the story.
Archaeologists associate the arrival of Italic speakers with the Terramare culture that flourished between 1700 and 1150 BC. This cultural group moved southward into the Italian Peninsula during the second half of the 2nd millennium BC.
Faliscan stands as the closest relative to Latin among all known ancient Italic languages. Umbrian and Oscan form the Osco-Umbrian branch, while South Picene represents another distinct lineage within the family tree.
A merger of voiced aspirated stops into /f/ or /h/ distinguishes Italic languages from other Indo-European branches. In initial position b- d- and g- merged to /f/, while g became /h/.
The languages preserve six cases in nouns and adjectives including nominative accusative genitive dative ablative and vocative with traces of a seventh locative case.
Non-Latin Italic languages ceased to be spoken perhaps sometime in the 1st century AD as speakers assimilated into the empire. Romanisation of the Italian Peninsula was basically complete by the 1st century BC except for southern Italy and Sicily where Greek dominance persisted.