BEN'EVEN'TO (for derivation, see below). An archiepiscopal city in south Italy, capital of the Province of Benevento (Slap: Italy, J 6). It is situated on a hill between the Calore and the Sabato, on the winding Naples-Foggia Rail way, 60 miles northeast of Naples. The walls are constructed almost entirely from Roman ruins, and on the north side of the town is Trajan's triumphal arch, the Porta Aurea, one of the best-preserved Roman structures in south Italy, erected in A.D. 114 in expectation of the Emperor's return from the East, where he died in 117. It is 50 feet high, built of Greek marble, and bears appropriate reliefs. The Twelfth Century Lombard-Saracenic cathedral contains beautiful paintings, and has a bronze door adorned with reliefs of New Testament sub jects, and said to have been made in Constan tinople in 1150. There are Egyptian obelisks in many of the public squares. The principal manufactures are of gold and silver-plated ware, leather and parchment, and the trade in grain is important.
According to tradition, the Samnite Maleven tum (Lat., ill-wind), the name of which was
changed to Beneventum (fair wind) after the Roman victory over Pyrrhus in B.C. 275, was founded by Diomedes. In the cathedral is a re lief showing the Calydonian boar adorned for sacrifice. During the Punic wars Beneventum remained faithful to the Romans and was plun dered by Hannibal after his victory at Canute B.C. 216. It was destroyed by Totila in A.D. 545, and was rebuilt by Narses. In the Sixth Cen tury the Lombards made it the capital of an independent duchy, of which Pope Leo IX., in 1049, had the possession guaranteed to him by Emperor Henry III. From I506 to I515 Bene vento was the capital of a principality granted to Talleyrand by Napoleon; in 1815 it was re stored to the Pope, and in 1860 became part of the kingdom of Italy. Five councils were held here in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries. Population (commune), in 1581, 22,000; in 1901, 24,647. Consult Borgia, Memorie istoriehe della pontifigia eitto- di Benevento (Roma, 1763-60).