BENEVENTO

benevento, a town and archiepiscopal see of campania, italy, capital of the province of benevento, 60 m. by rail and 32 m. direct n.e. of naples, situated on a hill 400 ft. above sea-level at the confluence of the calore and sabbato. pop. (1901) town, 17,227; commune, 24,137. it occupies the site of the ancient beneventum, originally maleventum or maluentum, supposed in the imperial period to have been founded by diomedes. it was the chief town of the samnites, who took refuge here after their defeat by the romans in 314 b.c. it appears not to have fallen into the hands of the latter until pyrrhus's absence in sicily, but served them as a base of operations in the last campaign against him in 275 b.c. a latin colony was planted there in 268 b.c., and it was then that the name was changed for the sake of the omen, and probably then that the via appia was extended from capua to beneventum. it remained in the hands of the romans during both the punic and the social wars, and was a fortress of importance to them. the position is strong, being protected by the two rivers mentioned, and the medieval fortifications, which are nearly 2 m. in length, probably follow the ancient line, which was razed to the ground by totila in a.d. 542. after the social war it became a _municipium_ and under augustus a colony. being a meeting point of six main roads,[1] it was much visited by travellers. its importance is vouched for by the many remains of antiquity which it possesses, of which the most famous is the triumphal arch erected in honour of trajan by the senate and people of rome in