Just down the road from the River Sàbato, Benevento was founded by Diomedes, an exile from the Trojan War who left the city the Calydonian Boar, the symbol of the city (you will find it in the bas-reliefs in the eastern facade of Benevento Cathedral’s bell tower). Benevento was also once the capital of the Samnites. Freedom was sacred to the Samnites, though they were forced to fight hard to retain it: when the Romans first attempted to attack the city in the first Samnite War, they were forced to endure a humiliating return through the Caudine Forks mountain pass. It was so difficult to conquer that it gained the name Maleventum (Bad Wind), and only after the victory of Rome against Pyrrhus the King of Epirus did its original name return, Maloenton (from Apollo Maloeis, protector of flocks), before later being changed again to Beneventum. It then fell into the hands of the Lombards, or Longobards (6th-9th century). The Sanmnites, Romans and Lombards all shared the same physiognomy and character; fiery and combative, as well as the legend of the "streghe" (witches), a legend which has inspired both a famous liquor and the first ever Italian literary prize. To think that the fame of Benevento begins with its witches!
