Benevento
(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 ).