BENEVENTO, archiepiscopal see, Campania, Italy, capital of province of Benevento, 6om. by rail and 32m. direct N.E. of Naples, on a hill 400ft. above sea-level at the confluence of the Calore and Sabdato. Pop. (1931), 27,416 (town) ; 36,92o (com mune). Beneventum, originally Maleventum or Maluentum, sup posed in the imperial period to have been founded by Diomedes, was the chief town of the Samnites, who took refuge here after their defeat by Rome ( 314 B.c.) . It appears not to have fallen until Pyrrhus' absence in Sicily, but served Rome 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 the name was changed for the sake of the omen. It was a fortress important to the Romans in the Punic and Social Wars. It was the junction of the prolongation of the Via Appia from Capua, its continuation to Tarentum and Brundisium, the Via Traiana to Brundisium by Herdoniae, the road to Telesia and Aesernia, the road to Aesernia by Bovianum and the road to Abellinum and Salernum. The Triumphal Arch erected in honour of Trajan by the senate and people of Rome in A.D. 114 has important reliefs. Besides the ancient theatre, a large cryptoporticus 197ft. long and a brick arch (called the Arco del Sacramento) remain, while below the town is the Ponte Lebbroso, a bridge of the Via Appia over the Sabbato, and along the road to Avellino are remains of thermae. In front of the Madonna delle Grazie is a bull in red Egyptian granite and in the Piazza Papiniano the fragments of two Egyp tian obelisks erected in A.D. 88 in front of the temple of Isis in honour of Domitian, the foundations of which were discovered close to the Arch of Trajan, with many fragments of fine sculp tures. The city was razed by Totila (A.D. 542) and partly rebuilt (663), later mediaeval fortifications following the old lines. Bene vento became the seat of a powerful Lombard duchy independent until 1053, when the emperor, Henry III., ceded it to Leo IX. in exchange for the bishopric of Bamberg ; it continued in papal possession until 1806, when Napoleon granted it to Talleyrand with the title of prince. In 1815 it returned to the papacy, but was united to Italy in 186o. Much damage has been done by earthquakes. The circular church of S. Sofia (76o), now modern ized, has a roof supported by six ancient columns ; the cathedral (9th-12th century) has a fine arcaded facade, incomplete square campanile (begun 1279) and bronze doors (early 13th century) adorned with bas-reliefs. The interior is in the form of a basilica, with double aisles borne by ancient columns. The 14th-century castle is at the highest point of the town.
Benevento is a station on the railway from Naples to Foggia, and has branch lines to Campobasso, Avellino and Cancello.
See A. Meomartini, Monumenti e opere d'Arte di Benevento (Bene vento, 1899) ; Benevento (Arti Grafiche, Bergamo, 19o9) well illus trated.
Battle of Benevento, Feb. 26, 1266. —This ranks as one of the rare examples of intelligent mediaeval cavalry tactics. It arose out of the long struggle between the Papacy and the house of Hohenstaufen, which held the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. By an offer of the Crown of the Two Sicilies then held by Man fred, Pope Clement IV. in 1265 gained the aid of Charles of An jou, brother of St. Louis. It may have been an attraction to Charles that the pope proclaimed his expedition as a crusade, but at least he came, with several thousand cavalry and a larger num ber of feudal foot. Charles himself arrived at Rome by sea in May 1265, but his main force only arrived by an overland march in Jan. 1266. By then he had so far exhausted the pope's sub sidies that he had to move them off eight days later in order to gain a footing where they could live free off the enemy country. He found his path barred at Capua, where Manfred had taken up a position behind the Volturno. So strong was he that Charles judged an indirect approach to Naples was the wiser course, and preferred the risks of a winter march through the Apennines to that of a frontal assault. But his army suffered terribly, lost many of its horses, and had to abandon all its wheeled transport. And when the half-starved army descended into the plain at Benevento Charles found Manfred awaiting him. For the Volturno he had merely exchanged the Calore, crossable by only the one bridge. But if Charles's camp was threatened with starvation, Manfred's was threatened by disloyalty. He chose, whether from fear of delay or from knight-errantry, to attack on Feb. 26, when a few more days' waiting would have ensured Charles's exhaustion. Manfred's Saracen foot-archers led the way across the bridge, followed by the cavalry in three divisions or "battles." The first consisted of 1,200 Germans in the new plate armour instead of the usual chain-mail, the second of i,000 Italian mercenaries, and the third of about 1,400 of his own knights, of dubious loyalty, to gether with his faithful Saracen light horse.
Charles wasted no time in preparing to meet him. He formed his cavalry likewise in three rather smaller divisions, with a couple of foot-soldiers behind each man-at-arms to aid him in the melee. The remainder of the foot skirmished in front ineffectively on both sides, and they were swept out of the way by the advance of Manfred's German cavalry. These steadily pressed back their mounted opponents until Charles threw in his second division. Even then the Germans held their own until it was noticed that as they raised their arms to strike an unprotected patch was exposed. The cry was passed down the French ranks to thrust at the armpits, and by this device the Germans were broken up. Manfred's second division came up over the narrow bridge too late to succour them, and, itself charged in front and in rear by French horsemen who swept round the flanks, soon dispersed. Late again, Manfred's third division arrived to find Charles's cavalry reformed. Before the charge was made, many of Man fred's disloyal nobles swerved away and left the field, and he himself found in the midst of the enemy the death he then delib erately sought. While we recognize the effect of the final and fatal disloyalty, the victory, however, was deservedly won by Charles's able control and well-timed use of his successive divi sions.