| The Sannio borders with the provinces of
Campobasso, Avellino, Foggia e Caserta. It's easy to reach it either
from the Puglia, with the motorway Napoli-Bari, or from the Lazio,
thanks to the link road Benevento-Telese-Caianiello, which links the
motorway Roma-Napoli. A legend
tells that Benevento was founded by the mythical Diomede, who docked at
the Apulian coast after the destruction of Trojan. The city where
Samnite populations lived became soon the flourishing centre of the
Samnite civilization. It made history for the first time when the
reckless Samnite warriors defeated the powerful Roman soldiers in the
battle of the Forche Caudine. The Samnites, defeated in their turn, were
subjected to the Roman rule, which converted the ancient name Maleventum
into the more auspicious Beneventum. After having became a political,
economical and militar strategical centre, the city increased its
importance, also owing to the passage of the Appia Way, queen of the
roads, and was embellished by the Romans with important buildings and
monuments still visible.
After the fall of the Roman Empire and
a period of evident decadence, Benevento and the Sannio rose to new
glory under the Longobard domination: the main town was before Duchy
(517) with Zuccone I, then Principality with Arechi III.
Between history and legend, Benevento
has the fame of land of witches. The legend of the witches started
during the Longobard period. Probably it came from the fact that the
Longobards met around a holy tree, the famous walnut of Benevento,
uprooted after the conversion of the Longobards to the Catholicism
carried out By the bishop Barbato. By this ancient rite-legend is
inspired the production of a liqueur famos throughout the world, to
which was given the name "Strega".
At the beginning of the second
millenium, with the death of the latest Longobard prince (Landolfo VI),
for Benevento started the long papal period until the 25th
October 1860, when Giorgio Pallavicini declared Benevento province of
Italy.
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