City
Benebento
Benevento
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Beneventum began as Maleventum, a name that to Roman ears started with male, meaning badly. After the victory over Pyrrhus in 275 BC the Romans swapped it for bene, well, as a good omen, and in 268 BC settled a Latin colony there. The town of the Hirpini, now Benevento in southern Italy, stood where the Calore and Sabato rivers meet and where the Via Traiana branched off from the Via Appia. Trajan's arch, raised in AD 115, still stands. The pair of towers beside its name on the map is believed to have been added only in modern times.