Benevento (; ) is a city and (municipality) of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the Sabato. As of June 30, 2025, Benevento has 55,319 inhabitants. It is also the seat of a Catholic archbishop.
Benevento occupies the site of the ancient Beneventum, originally Maleventum or even earlier Maloenton. In the imperial period, its founder was deemed to have been Diomedes after the Trojan War.
Due to its artistic and cultural significance, the Santa Sofia Church in Benevento was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, as part of a group of seven historic buildings inscribed as Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568–774 A.D.).
The patron saint of Benevento is Saint Bartholomew, the Apostle, whose relics are kept at the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta.
Territorial subdivisions Frazioni, or wards, include: Acquafredda, Cancelleria, Capodimonte, Caprarella, Cardoncielli, Cardoni, Cellarulo, Chiumiento, Ciancelle, Ciofani, Cretazzo, Epitaffio, Francavilla, Gran Potenza, Imperatore, Lammia, Madonna della Salute, Masseria del Ponte, Masseria La Vipera, Mascambruni, Montecalvo, Olivola, Pacevecchia, Pamparuottolo, Pantano, Perrottiello, Piano Cappelle, Pino, Ponte Corvo, Rosetiello, Ripa Zecca, Roseto, Santa Clementina, San Chirico, San Cumano (anc. Nuceriola), San Domenico, San Giovanni a Caprara, Sant'Angelo a Piesco, San Vitale, Scafa, Serretelle, Sponsilli, Torre Alfieri, and Vallereccia.
History
Ancient era Benevento, as Maleventum, was one of the chief cities of Samnium, situated on the Appian Way at a distance of east of Capua on the banks of the river Calor (now Calore). There is some discrepancy as to the tribe to which it belonged at contact: Pliny the Elder expressly assigns it to the Hirpini, while Livy's wording is somewhat obscure and Ptolemy considers the town as belonging to the Samnites proper, as distinguished from the Hirpini.Pliny iii. 11. s. 16; Livy xxii. 13; Ptolemy iii. 1. § 67. All ancient writers concur in representing it as a very ancient city, with Gaius Julius Solinus and Stephanus of Byzantium ascribing its foundation to this legend appears to have been adopted by the city's inhabitants, who in the time of Procopius pretended to exhibit the tusks of the Calydonian Boar as proof of their descent.Gaius Julius Solinus 2. § 10; Steph. B. s. v.; Procop. B. G. i. 15. Sextus Pompeius Festus, on the contrary (s. v. Ausoniam), related that the city was founded by Auson, a son of Ulysses and Circe, a tradition which indicates that it was an ancient Ausonian city prior to its conquest by the Samnites. It first appears in history as a Samnite city,Livy ix. 27. and must have already been a place of strength as the Romans did not venture to attack it during their first two wars with the Samnites; it appears, however, to have fallen into their hands during the Third Samnite War, though the exact occasion is unknown.
Benevento was certainly in the power of the Romans in 274 BC, when Pyrrhus of Epirus was defeated in a great battle, fought in its immediate neighborhood, by the consul Manius Curius Dentatus.Plutarch Pyrrh. 25; Frontinus Strategemata iv. 1. § 14. Six years later (268 BC) they further sought to secure its possession by establishing there a Roman colony with Latin rights.Livy Epit. xv.; Velleius Paterculus i. 14. It was at this time that it first assumed the name of Beneventum (good wind in latin), having previously been called Maleventum (bad wind in latin), a name which the Romans regarded as of evil augury, and changed into one of a more fortunate signification.Pliny iii. 11. s. 16; Liv. ix. 27; Fest. s. v. Beneventum, p. 34; Steph. B. s. v.; Procop. B. G. i. 15. It is probable that the Oscan or Samnite name was Maloeis, or Malieis (Μαλιείς in Ancient Greek), whence the form Maleventum would derive, like Agrigentum from Acragas (now Agrigento), Selinuntium from Selinus (the ruins of which are at now Selinunte), etc.James Millingen, Numnismatique de l'Italie, p. 223.
As a Roman colony Beneventum seems to have quickly become a flourishing place; and in the Second Punic War was repeatedly occupied by Roman generals as a post of importance, on account of its proximity to Campania, and its strength as a fortress. In its immediate neighborhood were fought two of the most decisive actions of the war: the Battle of Beneventum (214 BC), in which the Carthaginian general Hanno was defeated by Tiberius Gracchus; the other in 212 BC, when the camp of Hanno, in which he had accumulated a vast quantity of corn and other stores, was stormed and taken by the Roman consul Quintus Fulvius Flaccus.Liv. xxii. 13, xxiv. 14, 16, xxv. 13, 14, 15, 17; Appian, Annib. 36, 37. And though its territory was more than once laid waste by the Carthaginians, it was still one of the eighteen Latin colonies which in 209 BCE were at once able and willing to furnish the required quota of men and money for continuing the war.Livy xxvii. 10. No mention of it occurs during the Social War, although it seems to have escaped from the calamities which at that time befell so many cities of Samnium; towards the close of the Roman Republic Benevento is described as one of the most opulent and flourishing cities of Italy.Appian, B.C. iv. 3; Strabo v. p. 250; Cicero In Verrem i. 1. 5.
Under the Second Triumvirate its territory was portioned out by the Triumvirs to their veterans, and subsequently a fresh colony was established there by Augustus, who greatly enlarged its domain by the addition of the territory of Caudium (now Montesarchio). A third colony was settled there by Nero, at which time it assumed the title of Concordia; hence we find it bearing, in inscriptions of the reign of Septimius Severus, the titles Colonia Julia Augusta Concordia Felix Beneventum.Appian. l. c.; Lib. Colon. pp. 231, 232; Inscr. ap. Romanelli, vol. ii. pp. 382, 384; Orell. Inscr. 128, 590. Its importance and flourishing condition under the Roman Empire is sufficiently attested by existing remains and inscriptions; it was at that period unquestionably the chief city of the Hirpini, and probably, next to Capua, the most populous and considerable city of southern Italy. For this prosperity it was doubtless indebted in part to its position on the Via Appia, just at the junction of the two principal arms or branches of that great road, the one called afterwards the Via Traiana, leading thence by Aequum Tuticum (now Ariano Irpino) into Apulia; the other by Aeclanum to Venusia (now Venosa) and Tarentum (now Taranto).Strabo vi. p. 283. Its wealth is also evidenced by the quantity of coins minted by Beneventum. Horace famously notes Beneventum on his journey from Rome to Brundusium (now Brindisi).Sat. i. 5, 71. It was indebted to the same circumstance for the honor of repeated visits from the emperors of Rome, among which those of Nero, Trajan, and Septimus Severus, are particularly recorded.Tacitus Ann. xv. 34.
It was probably for the same reason that the triumphal arch, the Arch of Trajan, was erected there by the senate and people of Rome and constructed by the architect Apollodorus of Damascus in 114. The Arch of Trajan is one of the best-preserved Roman structures in the Campania. It repeats the formula of the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, with reliefs of Trajan's life and exploits of his reign. Some of the sculptures are in the British Museum. Successive emperors seem to have bestowed on the city accessions of territory, and erected, or at least given name to, various public buildings. For administrative purposes it was first included, together with the rest of the Hirpini, in the second region of Augustus, but was afterwards annexed to Campania and placed under the control of the consular of that province. Its inhabitants were included in the Stellatine tribe.Pliny iii. 11. s. 16; Mommsen, Topogr. degli Irpini, p. 167, in Bull. dell'Inst. Arch. 1847. Beneventum retained its importance down to the close of the Empire, and though during the Gothic wars it was taken by Totila, and its walls razed to the ground, they were restored, as well as its public buildings, shortly after; and P. Diaconus speaks of it as a very wealthy city, and the capital of all the surrounding provinces.Procop. B. G. iii. 6; P. Diac. ii. 20; De Vita, Antiq. Benev. pp. 271, 286.
Beneventum indeed seems to have been a place of much literary cultivation; it was the birthplace of Lucius Orbilius Pupillus, who long continued to teach in his native city before he removed to Rome, and was honored with a statue by his fellow-townsmen; while existing inscriptions record similar honors paid to another grammarian, Rutilius Aelianus, as well as to orators and poets, apparently only of local celebrity.Suet. Gram. 9; Orell. Inscr. 1178, 1185.
The territory of Beneventum under the Roman Empire was of very considerable extent. Towards the west it included that of Caudium, with the exception of the town itself; to the north it extended as far as the river Tamarus (now Tammaro), including the village of Pago Veiano, which, as we learn from an inscription, was anciently called Pagus Veianus; on the northeast it comprised the town of Aequum Tuticum (now Saint Eleutherio hamlet, between Ariano Irpino and Castelfranco in Miscano), and on the east and south bordered on the territories of Aeclanum (now Mirabella Eclano) and Abellinum (now Avellino). An inscription has preserved to us the names of several of the pagi or villages dependent upon Beneventum, but their sites cannot be identified.Henzen, Tab. Aliment. Baebian, pp. 93–108; Mommsen, Topogr. degli Irpini, pp. 168–171.
The city's most ancient coins bear the legend "Malies" or "Maliesa", which have been supposed to belong to the Samnite, or pre-Samnite, Maleventum. Coins with the legend "BENVENTOD" (an old Latin – or Samnite – form for Beneventor-um), must have been struck after it became a Latin colony.Millingen, Numismatique de l'Anc. Italie, p. 223; Friedländer, Osk. Münz. p. 67; McClure, British Place-Names etc., p. 33.
Duchy of Benevento
Not long after it had been sacked by Totila and its walls razed (545), Benevento became the seat of a powerful Lombard duchy. The circumstances of the creation of duchy of Benevento are disputed. Lombards were present in southern Italy well before the complete conquest of the Po Valley: the duchy would have been founded in 576 by some soldiers led by Zotto, autonomously from the Lombard king.
Zotto's successor was Arechis I (died in 640), from the Duchy of Friuli, who captured Capua and Crotone, sacked the Byzantine Amalfi but was unable to capture Naples. After his reign the Eastern Roman Empire had only Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, Sorrento, the tip of Calabria and the maritime cities of Apulia left in southern Italy.
In the following decades, Benevento added some territories to the Roman-Byzantine duchy by conquest, but the main enemy was now the northern Lombard Kingdom itself. King Liutprand intervened several times, imposing a candidate of his own to the realm's succession; his successor Ratchis declared the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento to be foreign countries where it was forbidden to travel without royal permission.
With the collapse of the Lombard Kingdom in 773, Duke Arechis II was elevated to Prince under the new Frankish Empire, in compensation for having some of his territory transferred back to the Papal States.
In November 774, the Duke of Benevento Duke Arechis II, immediately after being crowned prince, decided to send members of the Benevento Cortisani and Baccari families to occupy the central area of the Biferno river in the neighboring region of Molise, seeking to expand their political dominance.