Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

You may wish to see a page on Trajan's Arch, the main Roman monument of Benevento, first.
The writers of the Beneventine history unanimously claim Diomedes, the Etolian chief, for the founder of their city and consequently fix its origin in the years that immediately succeeded the Trojan war. Other authors assign it to the Samnites who made it one of their principal towns where they frequently took refuge when worsted by the Romans. In their time its name was Maleventum, a word of uncertain etymology, however it sounded so ill in the Latin tongue that the superstitious Romans after achieving the conquest of Samnium changed it into Beneventum (good event) in order to introduce their colony under fortunate auspices.
Henry Swinburne - Travels in the Two Sicilies. 1777-1780

Ponte Leproso across the River Sabato

The approach to Benevento by the Via Appia is through a charming country watered by the rivers Sabatus and Calor now denominated the Sabato and Calore. Near the confluence of these rivers on a fertile spot screened by beautiful hills stands the city which is entered by means of an ancient and handsome Roman bridge in perfect preservation and making part of the Via Appia.
Mariana Starke - Travels in Europe for the Use of Travellers on the Continent and likewise in the Island of Sicily - 1839 Edition - based on travels made in 1824-1828

Ponte Leproso: (above) a building incorporating some structures of the bridge; (below) ancient reliefs used to repair the building

The Roman bridge was broken in the VIth century during the Greek-Gothic War and subsequently rebuilt with a lower number of arches. Only one of the ancient pillars was retained. Major repairs were made in the early XVIIIth century. Its name might have derived from a leprosy colony on the out of town side of the bridge. Today it is used only for local traffic needs and the area has a rather forlorn aspect.

(left) Relief of the boar: the real one and in an XVIIIth century engraving; (right) inscriptions and ancient reliefs in one of the portals of the Cathedral

Except the old Metropolis of the World no city in Italy can boast of so many remains of ancient sculpture as are to be found in Benevento. Scarcely a wall is built of any thing but altars, tombs, columns and remains of entablatures, including a large boar covered with the stole and vitta (band) for sacrifice which antiquaries call the Caledonian Boar left by Diomedes as a badge to his colony of Benevento. The cathedral was built in the sixth century, enlarged in the eleventh and altered considerably in the thirteenth, when Archbishop Roger adorned it with a new front. To obtain a sufficient quantity of marble for this purpose he spared neither sarcophagus altar nor inscription, but fixed them promiscuously and irregularly in the walls of his barbarous structure. Swinburne
Swinburne takes notice of a remarkable bas relief of a boar adorned for sacrifice: it now is fixed on the outside wall of the cathedral; and the character of remote antiquity which it displays has induced several writers to look upon it as the gift of Diomedes himself, the founder of this and most of the other colonies on the western shore of the Adriatic.
Richard Keppel Craven - A Tour through the Southern Provinces of the Kingdom of Naples - 1822

Statue of Apis

At the Porta di San Lorenzo is an ancient monument much defaced which appears to be Egyptian and seems to have represented a large quadruped. Starke
The statue was found in 1629 in the countryside and it was placed on a pedestal outside one of the gates of the town. It was generally believed to have decorated a Temple to Isis and to represent Apis, a sacred Egyptian bull. Today this opinion is not fully supported by archaeologists because the positioning of the legs does not match the traditional iconography of Apis and more important the sex of the animal is not depicted, although the god was a symbol of fertility and sexual power. It is possible that the statue was made during the Late Empire when the specific attributes of Apis were no longer known.

(left) Arco del Sacramento; (right) nearby ancient buildings, most likely baths and behind them the western side of the new cathedral

Between the bridge and the town is an unornamented ancient gate of the city. Starke
In September 1943 the centre of Benevento was hit by Allied bombings which caused more than 2,000 deaths. The Cathedral and many adjoining buildings were destroyed. After the war it was found that some of these buildings stood on ancient ones, most likely those of the Forum of the Roman town. Archaeologists believe that the ancient arch known as Arco del Sacramento was the grand entrance to the Forum.

S. Maria della Verità and the exterior of the theatre

Remains of the Amphitheatre built by Vatinius are distinguishable though nearly covered by modern dwellings. Starke
Demolitions of buildings standing on the ancient Roman ones began in 1923 and were completed by 1957. It was found out that the old walls belonged to a theatre, rather than to an amphitheatre. The general assumption that the ruins belonged to an amphitheatre was based on a passage by Tacitus, Annales XV, 35: Nero rested awhile at Beneventum, where a crowded gladiatorial show was being exhibited by Vatinius. The man was one of the most conspicuously infamous sights in the imperial court, bred, as he had been, in a shoemaker's shop, of a deformed person and vulgar wit, originally introduced as a butt. After a time he grew so powerful by accusing all the best men, that in influence, wealth, and ability to injure, he was pre-eminent even in that bad company. Translation based on that by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb.

Roman Theatre: interior

Inscriptions found at the site indicate that the theatre was inaugurated in 126 by Emperor Hadrian. It was repaired/improved during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus towards the end of the same century. The estimated audience of the original building was in the region of 15,000.

Roman Theatre: (left) arches supporting the seating section; (right) statues and reliefs which decorated it

The theatre was built on a flat piece of land and not on the slope of a hill. Excavations have identified facilities for the performers. It does not appear it was modified in order to house gladiatorial fights. Remains of an amphitheatre, where the event narrated by Tacitus most likely took place, were found in 1997 near Ponte Leproso.

(left) Obelisk in a small square along the main street of Benevento; (centre/right) Museo del Sannio - Egyptian Section: fragments of a second obelisk and statues of Thoth and Horus, two Egyptian deities which were symbolized by a baboon and a falcon

In the court (of the cathedral) stands a small Egyptian obelisk of red granite crowded with hieroglyphics. Swinburne
Isis was worshipped at Beneventum. It being recorded on an Egyptian obelisk still existing in the town that Domitian repaired her temple there. Starke
Although all evidence indicates that a major Temple to Isis was built at Benevento by Domitian in 88 AD, its exact location has yet to be identified. The inscriptions on a small obelisk make reference to the Emperor and say it was erected by Lucilius Ruphus, possibly a local wealthy man or the high priest of the temple.
The devotion of Domitian to Isis can be explained by an event narrated by Tacitus - Historiae III, 74 which occurred during the Four Emperors' Year: Domitian was concealed in the lodging of a temple attendant when the assailants broke into the citadel; then through the cleverness of a freedman he was dressed in a linen robe and so was able to join a crowd of devotees of Isis without being recognized and to escape to the house of Cornelius Primus, one of his father's clients, near the Velabrum, where he remained in concealment. (Loeb Classical Library edition of Tacitus 1925)

Museo del Sannio: statues of the Roman period

The image used as background for this page shows a Roman funerary relief on the bell tower of the Cathedral.

Move to page one and see Trajan's Arch or to page three and see the medieval heritage of Benevento or to page four and see S. Sofia, its most interesting church.