(Latin, beneventum, fair wind)
Town and former papal principality of Campania, Italy. It occupies the site of the ancient Maleventum, founded by the Samnites and conquered by the Romans 275 B.C., who changed its name; destroyed by the Goths A.D. 542. An independent Lombard duchy from 571, it was ceded by Emperor Henry III to Pope Leo IX, 1053, who led an expedition against the Norman invaders of Benevento and finally succeeded in making them his devoted subjects. From 1053 till 1860, when it was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy, this principality, surrounded by the Kingdom of Naples, was governed by a delegate of the Holy See, but was very often occupied by the Neapolitans. The seat of an archdiocese since 939, it was the scene of eleven councils from 1059 to 1545. Its Byzantine cathedral dates from the 9th century; the church of Saint Sophia from the Lombard period (c.760).