Benevento

   City in central Italy (q.v.) that suffered in the wars between Justinian I and the Ostrogoths (qq.v.). Totila finally destroyed its walls in 545. The Lombards (q.v.) occupied it from ca. 570, creating the duchy of Benevento, which included Capua and Salerno (q.v.) until the ninth century. Benevento became independent in 774, when Charlemagne (q.v.) destroyed the Lombard state. Thereafter, it switched acknowledgement of technical suzerainty from Charlemagne's successors to Byzantium (Leo VI [q.v.] reoccupied it briefly from 891-895, and again in 1042-1051), then to the Normans and to the papacy (qq.v.), as the situation demanded.