Note 1702 — BOOK III. AN ACCOUNT OF COUNTRIES, NATIONS, SEAS, TOWNS, HAVENS, MOUNTAINS, RIVERS, DISTANCES, AND PEOPLES WHO NOW EXIST OR FORMERLY EXISTED. INTRODUCTION.

Livy and Ptolemy assign this place to Samnium Proper, as distinguished from the Hirpini. It was a very ancient city of the Samnites, but in the year B.C. 268, a Roman colony was settled there, on which occasion, prompted by superstitious feelings, the Romans changed its name Maleventum, which in their language would mean “badly come,” to Beneventum or “well come.” The modern city of Benevento still retains numerous traces of its ancient grandeur, among others a triumphal arch, erected A.D. 114 in honour of the emperor Trajan.