1 Introduction

In 1999 the book „The Idea and Ideal of the Town between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages“ was published as one of the numerous volumes in „The Transformation of the Roman World“ series. In his study on Italy, Gian Pietro Brogiolo, one of the editors of the volume, identified some of the criteria that led late-antique and early medieval authors to describe an inhabited centre as a civitas.^[1] One of these criteria was the presence of a bishop and of a public official, who would reside in a palace and could govern a stretch of territory from the city. A civitas would also have a certain military and economic prominence: within its walls it would house a market, associated with productive activities and consumption. Moreover, cities were home to different social classes, including – most notably – members of the elite.^[2] This paper focuses mainly on two issues, namely the spatial communication of public authority in Lombard Southern Italy during the 8th and 9th centuries and the role that the dialectic between urban elites and public power played both in changing the seat of power or confirming the existing one. Although historical and archaeological research has extensively addressed the first topic, it has often failed to take into account the social and political context of the Duchy/Principality of Benevento. Consequently, the communication of public authority, which took place in public spaces through buildings and inscriptions, has been analysed from a top-down perspective, thus failing to consider the shared and negotiating nature of early medieval political power, as well as the peculiar features of the internal competition in Benevento. Besides a review of the research carried out so far on the city capitals of Lombard Southern Italy, this paper aims to illustrate how power networks^[3] – and especially the interaction between the dukes/princes and urban elites – built, shaped and defined Benevento and Salerno as capitals during the 8th and 10th centuries.

Before discussing the political and social construction of these cities as capitals, it is worth making some preliminary remarks concerning the state of archaeological research, which is essential for understanding the transformations of the urban landscape during this period. From an archaeological standpoint, only Salerno has been the object of detailed excavation campaigns related to these issues, which have highlighted Arechis’s plan to refound the city as the second capital of Lombard Southern Italy.^[4] On the contrary, the archaeological surveys on Benevento have not paid much attention to the area of the palace, which is believed to have been located just north of the church of Santa Sofia, due to the topography and layout of the city.^[5] The excavations have chiefly focused on other areas of this city, such as the cathedral, not least because it was almost completely destroyed in bombing raids during the Second World War.^[6] Such a highly diverse scenario from the point of view of archaeological investigations affected the structure of this paper and it will also make some of the conclusions necessarily partial ones.

2 The Duchy of Benevento: a Lombard Sub-Regnum?

Between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages the urban fabric of Southern Italy experienced an overall transformation due to a combination of multiple factors, which also led to the downsizing of inhabited centres and to the disappearance of certain bishoprics.^[7] After a long debate, nowadays both historians and archaeologists generally agree that material damage caused by natural disasters, such as floods and earthquakes, as well as the economic and social consequences of the Gothic War (535–553) could not be the only causes of the transformation of southern Italian settlements during this period.^[8] On the contrary, this is considered to be a long-running process, which must also be linked to specific political choices made in Late Antiquity and to the major administrative and social changes they led to.^[9] In such a context, the first Lombards arrived in the Italian peninsula in 568/569 and chose to settle in Benevento around 570, based on military considerations: the city was located on the via Appia axis, from which the via Traiana branched off (fig. 1).^[10] Following different itineraries, these two roads connected Rome and Brindisi and directed Lombard expansion towards Apulia.

Fig. 1:

The Appian Road.

In the 7th and 8th centuries, the Dukes of Benevento were able to acquire extensive military and political autonomy, largely thanks to the geographical location of the duchy within the Lombard Kingdom: it was far from Pavia, the kingdom’s capital, and was relatively isolated from the other Lombard territories (fig. 2).

Fig. 2:

Early medieval Italy, mid. 7th century: Lombard and Byzantine territories.

The dukes often led independent military expeditions against the Byzantine regions to consolidate and extend the borders of their domain.^[11] Like the Dukes of Spoleto, they could even afford to display a different kind of behaviour towards the pope compared to the Lombard king.^[12]

Although Paul the Deacon’s „Historia Langobardorum“ also mentions other cities – most notably Capua, which played a prominent role during the military campaign launched by Emperor Constans II (641–668)^[13] – Benevento was by far the most important centre in Lombard Southern Italy. The main reason for this was the presence of public authorities. The establishment of a veritable dynasty as far back as the 7th century allowed the Dukes of Benevento to develop a strong political awareness from early on, as is attested by the representation of public authority.^[14] This is illustrated especially by the coins issued by the local mint, as well as by the ducal title attested in 8th-century charters. Although the Beneventan gold coinage is modelled after the 6th-century Byzantine one, it always bears the initial of the duke in charge, who is depicted on one side of the coin, with a cross on the reverse (fig. 3).^[15]

Fig. 3:

Arechis’s gold tremissis.

The formula vir gloriosissimus dux gentis Langobardorum also reflects a broad degree of political authority, second only to that of the king. The ducal rank is here expressed with reference to the whole Lombard people and not simply by association with a city, as in the case of the other dukes.^[16] An important setting for representing and asserting public authority was also the judicial context. According to an ‚assembly paradigmʻ common to many early medieval kingdoms, the Lombard dukes would adjudicate disputes and issue verdicts together with a group of officials.^[17] On the contrary, 8th-century judicial records show that the Duke of Benevento would stand alone before the disputing parties and almost invariably in his palace.^[18] By behaving exactly as the Lombard King would in Pavia, he was able to utilise the judicial domain as a sort of theatre in which to practice, legitimise and represent his own public authority before the local aristocracy.^[19]

From the mid-8th century, then, if not earlier, the Duchy of Benevento de facto emerged as a sub-regnum within the Lombard Kingdom. In this respect, the pattern behind the dukes’ marriages is particularly revealing. When the „Historia Langobardorum“ provides information about the background of a duke’s wife, it invariably states that she was of northern origin. In the middle of the 8th century, three of these women not only came from the aristocracy of the Lombard Kingdom, but were even members of the royal family. During the 8th century, both Romuald II’s wife, Gumperga, and Gisulf II’s wife, Scauniperga, were probably members of the royal family;^[20] Arechis’s wife, Adelperga, was no less than King Desiderius’s daughter. The latter was the sister both of Liutperga, the wife of Tassilo of Bavaria, and of Charlemagne’s anonymous wife, who was rejected by the Frankish king after the death of his brother, Carloman, in 771.^[21] As Janet Nelson has already stressed, these marriages were all part of Desiderius’s political strategy, which aimed to expand his prestige beyond the borders of the Lombard Kingdom.^[22] Benevento had an important role in this plan – one very similar, albeit not identical, to the king’s strategy towards Bavaria and the Frankish Kingdom.

Moreover, during the Carolingian conquest of the Italian peninsula in 774, the Benevento army was not involved in any military operations. Although Arechis remained loyal to King Desiderius, the „Liber Pontificalis“ tells us that he did not join the king in battle and preferred to stay in Benevento to maintain control over Southern Italy, whereas Theodicius, the Duke of Spoleto, helped Desiderius with his army.^[23] Taking into account the family link between Arechis and Desiderius, the duke’s lack of interest in helping his king and father-in-law could be considered not only a political strategy, but also further proof of Benevento’s de facto independence from Pavia before the Carolingian conquest. Whatever the reasons behind Arechis’s avoidance of battle, this reveals a certain disengagement from the Lombard Kingdom. It certainly proved to be a successful strategy: after the Lombards’ military defeat, the Spoletans first submitted to Pope Hadrian I, by cutting their hair more Romanorum – in the custom of the Romans – before becoming subjects of the Frankish Kingdom,^[24] whereas the Beneventans remained independent.

3 Benevento and Salerno between ducatus and principatus

Since the Duchy of Benevento attained the status of a veritable sub-regnum, during the 8th century the city in which the dukes resided took the form of a real capital. The reason for this was not only that it had its own palatium and mint, but also that it was chosen as a place of residence by both the dukes and the Lombard elite, who based their wealth and social status on their relationship with the public authorities.

As other scholars have already noted, the urban development plan that Duke Arechis (758–787) implemented in Benevento is particularly significant and brings out some of the defining aspects of the city as a capital.^[25] Mentioned both in the duke’s funerary epitaph and, with praise, in chronicles, this building plan was already put in place in the period before Arechis adopted the title of prince in 774.^[26] The model which he looked to was rooted in the Lombard tradition and in a certain respect it was that of the Lombard kings in Pavia.^[27] However, it was primarily that of the previous Dukes of Benevento, who had not only established a great legacy in the representation of public authority, but almost certainly used to reside in Benevento. This is confirmed by the fact that as many as 34 of the 42 documents considered authentic by the „Codice diplomatico longobardo“ do in fact name the urban palace as the place of issue.^[28] On the contrary, Byzantine influence seems to play a very limited role in shaping the representation of public authority in Lombard Southern Italy, at any rate until the end of the 9th century. However, a trace of this influence may be found precisely in the adjective sacrus or sacratissimus, which is often associated with the palatium in the ducal diplomas. According to the historiographical tradition of the Abbey of Montecassino, Arechis built the Beneventan palace from scratch.^[29] However, the mention of a palatium in charters from the previous period betrays its presence at least from the early 8th century.^[30] Arechis may thus have simply renovated or embellished an already extant building.

Most important, he reinforced and extended the walls of Benevento. In the early medieval period, the settlement occupied a small area compared to the Roman city. During the 5th century, the south-west of the current historic centre was gradually abandoned and public spaces such as the forum and amphitheatre were reused as cemeteries and quarries, as archaeological excavations have revealed.^[31] In the aftermath of the Gothic War, the city’s two Roman triumphal arches, the Arco del Sacramento and Arco di Traiano, were assigned a new function as city gates and the walls were rebuilt after Totila’s demolition in 542.^[32] Due to a possible increase in population, in the second half of the 8th century Arechis not only consolidated the extant fortifications but also developed the urban settlement to the south by creating a new district, the civitas nova, thereby extending the walls (see fig. 4).^[33]

Fig. 4:

Map of Benevento: the area of civitas nova.

Certainly, by 760 or thereabout the duke had erected the church of Santa Sofia di Benevento in an area not far from the site of the palatium, where there was already a cemetery.^[34] The hagiographical tradition suggests that it was at this time that the relics of St. Mercury and the Twelve brothers were moved into the building.^[35] According to the „Annales Beneventani“, the construction of the church had already begun under Duke Gisulf II (731–732, 742–751), a piece of information that is also recorded in the „Chronica monasterii Casinensis“ by Leo Marsicanus.^[36] Although this detail has only recently caught historians’ attention, it proves to be extremely relevant, because it puts Arechis in a conscious relationship with his predecessor, and thus with the Beneventan ducal tradition in which he clearly sought to embed his own foundation.^[37] However, even if Arechis only completed a project launched by Gisulf II, he significantly influenced its outcome. Above all, he collected saints’ bodies from some minor centres across Lombard Southern Italy, in such a way as to make his capital the main centre for the veneration of relics in the whole region.^[38] Moreover, alongside the church, a female monastery was also built, which was again completed before 774. Historians have already highlighted the similarities between this monastic institution and San Salvatore di Brescia, the nunnery founded by King Desiderius and Ansa in 753.^[39] Recently, however, some important differences have been brought to light. Above all, although Arechis also entrusted some personal possessions to the monastery of Santa Sofia,^[40] the core of his donations is almost exclusively made up of fiscal assets. In 774, he probably meant to reinforce the public role of this foundation in conjunction with his new princely office, and did so by both confirming some of the previous donations and incorporating a substantial number of fiscal properties into the monastery’s patrimony.^[41] This kind of ‚second endowmentʻ of Santa Sofia, achieved in conjunction with the establishment of the principality, lies at the basis of the enduring prosperity of the monastic institution, which continued to be held in high esteem by Lombard princes even after the extinction of Arechis’s dynasty.^[42]

An overview of Arechis’s building programme would not be complete without a mention of his refounding of Salerno, which was celebrated by both Erchempert’s „Ystoriola“ and the „Chronicon Salernitanum“.^[43] It is unclear whether the development of this centre, which hitherto had not been a particularly relevant one, occurred before or after 774.^[44] However, Arechis certainly came to prefer Salerno after this date. This was due to the city’s strategic position from a military point of view, as well as in terms of connections, a position that was primarily exploited for anti-Carolingian purposes.^[45] By contrast to Benevento, Salerno was on the sea; and this would ensure an access route for reinforcements and, most importantly, a means of escape, should the conflict with Charlemagne take a turn for the worse. Arechis, therefore, strengthened and extended the city walls, an operation that furnished the occasion for the composition of a poetic text celebrating his initiative.^[46]

The city was further provided with a palace, which in all likelihood was developed on two floors, according to the model of late-antique architecture.^[47] The second floor included both a hall and an exterior gallery, which is still partly visible on the west side of the building. According to the „Chronicon Salernitanum“, the palace also had a large staircase opening onto the seaside.^[48] Since the princely hall later became the church of San Pietro a Corte, its original decoration has been partially preserved to this day, once again revealing a distinctive reference to late-antique models.^[49] Along with the remains of the opus sectile floor and some of the mosaic tiles that covered the walls, fragments of an inscription were also found. On the basis of a long-standing tradition, the epitaph written on this marble slab is attributed to Paul the Deacon, who wrote it to celebrate Arechis and his new seat of power.^[50] It is a high-level cultural product, which consciously uses the graphic language of Roman epigraphy to further emphasise the political authority of the first prince.^[51]

Alessandro Di Muro has hypothesised that the refounding of Salerno was primarily due to economic reasons: Arechis was planning to develop a ‚Lombardʻ harbour and to make all products from the hinterland converge there, so as to bypass the Naples market.^[52] Undoubtedly, economic reasons cannot entirely be ruled out: Lombard Southern Italy was at the centre of a demographic and economic expansion during the 8th century, whose nature largely continues to elude historians. Probably, the rebirth of towns in the Principality of Benevento and the Lombard princes’ remarkable wealth in gold both reflect this growth.^[53] However, it was Prince Sicard who most prominently pursued this goal during the 830s. As the campaigns against Naples and Amalfi did not lead to any enduring control over these centres, Sicard had part of the Amalfi coastal community deported to Salerno, so as to lend the city the kind of mercantile character it had evidently lacked until then.^[54]

Whatever the original reasons for Arechis’ redevelopment of the city, it seems that Salerno too, like the monastery of Santa Sofia, benefited from the establishment of the principality in 774. It was probably after this date that Arechis gave Salerno the shape of a second capital, investing in the construction of a palace and establishing a close personal bond with the city. It is worth noting that he did not give his name to Salerno. In this respect, he did not follow the Roman emperors’ model, which was adopted not only by the Byzantine rulers in the Eastern Mediterranean but also by the pope, who claimed this kind of Roman tradition especially from the second half of the 8th century onwards, and then – with little success – in the Frankish Kingdom.^[55] Naming a city after the ruling sovereign was a familiar practice also in Lombard Southern Italy, as the later case of Sicopolis proves. In the first half of the 9th century, the counts of Capua founded this city on a hill near their former seat of power, Capua vetere. According to Erchempert, its name was given to avoid conflict with Prince Sico, who claimed to be the only authority qualified to found new centres, since he was the real ruler of the region.^[56] Compared to such initiative, the refounding of Salerno differs primarily in terms of how Arechis associated his memory with the city: not only did he include the buildings of his new princely court in the urban space, but he also chose the cathedral of this town – rather than Benevento – as the burial place first for his son Romuald and then also for himself. In doing so, he turned Salerno into the preferential location for preserving his own memory and that of his dynasty.^[57]

The idea of creating a second, off-centre capital cannot be exclusively interpreted either in economic terms or in relation to the Carolingian threat. Rather, there is a necessarily political aspect to it. In all likelihood, the refounding of Salerno – just like the redefinition of Santa Sofia as a public institution – came to be associated with the transition from duchy to principality; most significantly, however, it marked a clear distance between the prince and the aristocracy. As highlighted by Josiane Barbier and Martin Gravel in relation to the Frankish world, the limited mobility of a king – which is to say, the fact that aristocrats needed to travel to the sovereign’s palace in order to meet him – was important for the representation of the king’s political authority and hence for clearly distinguishing him from the kingdom’s notables.^[58] I would argue that after 774 Arechis chose Salerno as his princely court not so much because of any military emergency – after all, there was no real emergency before Charlemagne’s arrival in Capua in 786^[59] – but to create a distance between himself and the aristocracy of Benevento.

Over the course of the 8th century, the Beneventan aristocracy had accrued also wealth through the policy of redistribution adopted by previous dukes. The considerable donations to the Abbey of Montecassino made by Gastald Guacco in 797 and some judicial records from the mid-8th century, particularly those concerning Wadulf’s properties, show that at least part of the aristocracy had one or more dwellings in the capital, along with extensive landed property throughout the region.^[60] Moreover, around the mid-8th century the elite of Benevento were involved in a series of plots that led to the deposition of the Duke Gisulf II and his successor Godescalc (739–742).^[61] It seems quite likely, then, that by adopting the title of prince Arechis took the opportunity to assert his prestige by also distancing himself, even geographically, from the aristocracy of Benevento. However, this was possible, first of all, because the potential Carolingian threat, which continued to loom over the South between 774 and 786, probably weakened the degree of internal competition within the Benevento elite, who chose to rally around the prince.

At any rate, this is what both Erchempert’s „Ystoriola“ and the „Chronicon Salernitanum“ seem to suggest when reporting on events relating to the end of the 8th century, namely to the principalities of Arechis and Grimoald III (787–806). For instance, in Erchempert’s chronicle, Arechis’s reign opened a kind of golden age, which was continued by his successors, his son Grimoald III and Grimoald IV (806–817), the latter of whom was an officer at the court of Benevento and possibly a member of a collateral branch of the princely family.^[62] According to its author, under the guidance of these great princes, the Lombards were able to maintain a place in history. It was not as glorious as in Paul the Deacon’s „Historia Langobardorum“, but it was clearly better than the one in Erchempert’s time, when the Lombards were incapable of defending themselves against the Saracens’ raids because of their inner divisions.^[63]

4 Shifting Roles in Dynastic Changes: Benevento and Salerno in the 9th Century

The role of Salerno changed in the first half of the 9th century with the rise of the Siconid dynasty to the princely throne. Sico (817–832) and Sicard (832–839) strengthened the bond between Benevento and their own princely authority, in particular by investing in the cathedral of Santa Maria. This was entrusted with the relics of St. Gennaro and St. Trofimena, which these princes obtained from Naples and Amalfi respectively, along with those of St. Bartholomew, which were shipped from Lipari by orders of Sicard.^[64] The cathedral also became the last resting place of Sico, who inaugurated the princes’ practice of having themselves interred in the paradisus, i. e. the porticoed hall in front of the church.^[65] His funerary inscription, which celebrates his military campaigns against Naples, turned this sacred space into a stage for the representation of princely political authority for the first time. The cathedral also housed other tombs, possibly belonging to the Benevento elite, whose inscriptions are currently stored in the Museo del Sannio and still waiting to be published with an overall study.

Before the 9th century, the cathedral had never been at the heart of elite Lombard patronage. Nor did it hold a central position in terms of the city’s identity or of urban devotion, which instead focused on the numerous private churches and monasteries founded by the dukes and the members of the Lombard aristocracy.^[66] Moreover, it had never been the role of the Bishop of Benevento to symbolically support the authority of the local dukes and princes.^[67] This was perfectly in line with the tradition of Lombard power, which in this respect differed significantly from the Frankish world. Up until the Siconid dynasty, the cathedral did not even play a significant role within the sacred geography of Southern Italy. It was the church of Santa Sofia and its relics that constituted the focus of devotion in Benevento and shaped the city’s religiosity. In fact, it is likely that the Siconids also chose to invest in their relationship with the cathedral in order to limit the role of Santa Sofia, so as to distance themselves from the previous dukes.^[68] By entrusting such prestigious relics to Santa Maria, they invested in a new urban devotional centre that competed with the illustrious Santa Sofia in Benevento. At the same time, they endowed the episcopal see with unprecedented political importance.

Even the choice to favour the old capital, Benevento, over Salerno could be interpreted as a break with Arechis’s tradition. However, it is far more likely that this choice is connected to these princes’ need to consolidate their power, which was rooted in the plot hatched against Grimoald IV in 817.^[69] Following the Treaty of Aachen of 812, which had brought the conflict with the Carolingians to an end, competition had broken out again within the ranks of the Benevento elite in a particularly violent way.^[70] So, unlike Arechis, the Siconids could not afford to reside for too long far from the palace in Benevento, where their physical presence was required to concretely affirm their own public role vis-à-vis the local elite by mediating the conflicts between the various aristocratic groups.

As regards the first half of the 9th century, chronicles and the few surviving documents paint a markedly urban picture of the Benevento aristocracy, closely associated with the palace. The social and political identity of these individuals and their families was chiefly based on their participation in public power. This was contingent upon their relationship with the prince, from whom they obtained donations and especially public offices, which entailed the administration of fiscal properties.^[71] The palace, therefore, played a leading role as regards the structuring of political life and society in Benevento. In all likelihood, it also accounts for aristocrats’ tendency to reside in the city and for the risks involved in spending too much time outside its walls, as frequently stressed by narrative sources. For instance, according to the „Chronicon Salernitanum“ Count Radelchis of Conza realised that Prince Sico sought to cut him off from all power games when the latter chose to make some important political decisions while Radelchis was outside the city on some administrative business.^[72]

Within this highly centralised political and social structure, Sicard favoured only one kinship group, the Dauferids, to the detriment of all other members of the Benevento aristocracy, thereby restricting political competition.^[73] The outcome was a plot that in 839 brought this prince’s rule to an end, and which was followed by an extended period of conflict between rival factions. The conflict only ended in 849 through Louis II’s intervention and the splitting of Lombard Southern Italy into two separate polities: the Principality of Benevento and that of Salerno.^[74] The length of the struggle between the Lombard factions, which were both competing for a leading role on the Beneventan political stage, proves that the split of the principality was not initially planned or desired by the two parties. On the contrary, this operation was strongly supported by Louis II (850–875), who looked forward to a prompt pacification of the region primarily to efficiently oppose Muslim expansion.^[75]

After 849, Salerno was therefore chosen as the capital of the new principality as a fait accompli. The faction headed by Sicard’s brother, Siconulf, and by the Dauferids had already established its headquarters in this city in the years just after the plot, possibly not only because of the presence there of another palatium, the one built by Arechis, but because the Dauferids had landed estates in the nearby Nocera area.^[76]

The „Chronicon Salernitanum“ narrates some episodes in which Prince Sicard acted in the city, such as when he ordered the execution of Abbot Alfano, a member of the faction opposing his brother-in-law, Roffrit.^[77] However, it cannot be said that Sicard appointed Salerno as his residence, but eventually that he stayed there on a periodic basis.^[78] All the diplomas granted by this prince mention Benevento as place of issue, proving that the ancient palace was still the favourite location for the performance of public power.^[79] Despite it cannot be ignored that Sicard had a certain interest in Salerno, which was also reflected in the forced mobility of the Amalfitans, it was only the establishment of a new Lombard principality that revitalised the political role of this city. The pactum divisionis turned it into a veritable capital, finally releasing it from the minor role it had always played next to Benevento.

Although the „Chronicon Salernitanum“ paints a vivid picture of its urban elite as early as the first half of the 9th century, Salerno was probably inhabited by a veritable aristocracy, a group of Beneventans, only after 849.^[80] Certainly, the 8th-century buildings were employed as a seat of power by the new prince, Siconulf (839–851), and would not be abandoned until the 10th century. The „Chronicon Salernitanum“ thus reports that the inscription with Paul the Deacon’s text was already partially illegible, while a document from 990 defines the palace as vetus.^[81] Altough Prince Guaimar II of Salerno (901–946) restored Arechis’s palace after an earthquake, it must have been in a state of serious decay by the end of the century, when the city axis moved away from the area where this building was located.

Following the partition of Lombard Southern Italy, the pre-eminence of Benevento as capital city and centre of political coordination was not significantly undermined, but the prince’s authority rested on a territory that had been considerably reduced. During the factional struggle that followed the plot against Sicard in 839, the Counts of Capua allied themselves with Siconulf and the Dauferids.^[82] Consequently, Capua and its territory also became part of the Principality of Salerno leaving the Beneventan party in control of the mountain area of inland Campania and the Adriatic side of the former principality. The reduction of the principality’s territorial extension and the change of ruling dynasty led to a contraction of the political role of the capital, which was also reflected in the extent of internal competition. After 849, the latter took the form of an internal conflict within the Radelchid kinship group, whose members held the princely title, as well as the episcopal see, until the late 9th century.^[83] At this time, the inroads made by Muslim armed bands and then the Byzantine conquest of much of Apulia, an area rich in fiscal properties,^[84] weakened princely authority and possibly favoured the emergence of local powers. According to narrative sources, in the second half of the 9th century, the princes of Benevento had to face the revolt of some minor centres, as in the case of Trivento and Sant’Agata dei Goti recounted by Erchempert.^[85] All the military setbacks no doubt contributed to the weakening of the Radelchids and the rise of a new dynasty, which came from outside Benevento. In 900 the princely title went to Atenulf of Capua, a member of the Landulfid lineage, whose power had been rooted in that city since the first half of the 9th century.^[86]

5 Benevento (and Capua) after 900

Although in the year 900 the Principality of Benevento was a weaker political entity than in the first half of the 9th century,^[87] its capital continued to remain a symbolic centre of power even for the Landulfids.

Despite an urban tradition stretching back to the Roman period, in the first half of the 9th century Capua cannot have been all that different from Conza and Acerenza, two fortified settlements with an important military and political role.^[88] The officials entrusted with these districts were among the most prominent members of the Benevento aristocracy. When they were chosen from outside such ranks – as in the case of Sico, who was appointed Gastald of Acerenza before becoming the prince in 817 – this exposed the prince to criticism, which could lead to significant internal tensions.^[89] When the conflict of factions broke out between 839 and 849, Gastald Landulf was able to carve out a new – albeit ambiguous – political role for himself by relying on the strategic relevance of Capua in the upper Campania region. During the second half of the 9th century, his heirs took advantage of the instability of the Principality of Salerno, to which Capua was formally subjected after 849, and achieved complete autonomy.^[90]

In the early medieval period Capua comprised three different centres: Capua vetere, Sicopolis, and Capua nova. This complex urban layout has not yet received the attention it deserves, although here too some excavations have been conducted.^[91] Historians have assigned a marked political meaning both to Gastald Landulf’s construction of the castrum of Sicopolis, which occurred without Prince Sico’s authorisation between 820 and 830, and to the later founding of Capua nova on the banks of the Volturno river in 856. However, it was the latter – the very epicentre of the political competition within the Landulfid kinship group described by Erchempert – that acquired all the hallmarks of a capital.^[92] In addition to showing far greater commercial potential than the castrum of Sicopolis, the new Capua was also furnished with walls and housed the episcopal see.^[93] In addition, at least from the 880s, this city had a palatium, which allowed the Landulfids to explicitly distance themselves from the princely authority in Salerno.^[94]

When Atenulf became Prince of Benevento in the year 900, Capua nova did not lose the role it had acquired in the second half of the 9th century.^[95] Although the old Lombard capital retained a symbolic function even within the framework of the Capua-Benevento principality, it seems as though Atenulf’s successors favoured Capua as their seat of power. A marked predilection for Capua is suggested by surviving charters from the period between 900 and 981, when – following the death of Pandulf Ironhead – the principality was divided between the two branches of the Landulfid family. Although some charters were also issued from the palace in Benevento (and while others lack a topical date), most of them were issued in Capua.^[96] Sometimes this is also the case when the addressee is a Beneventan institution, as with the monastery of Santa Sofia.^[97]

These princes therefore travelled between Capua and Benevento, yet did not make the old capital their place of residence. On the one hand, political competition – which by the 10th century had become restricted to the Landulfid kinship group and was characterised by very different, and more limited, dynamics compared to the previous centuries^[98] – was played out in Capua and the princes could not avoid taking part in it. On the other hand, the prestigious position of Benevento was once again confirmed by the princely itinerary. The Landulfids strove to be present in this city, not least by re-establishing their connection with Santa Sofia, the monastic foundation linked to Arechis and the origins of the Lombard principality. It was through the support of these princes that the monastery, which in the meantime had turned first into a mixed community and then into a male one, managed to free itself from the protection of the Abbey of Montecassino and was explicitly brought „sub dicione sacri palatii“^[99] for the first time (if only temporarily). However, the princes’ periodic visits to the ancient Lombard capital were not only due to the political memory and identity still associated with it, but, once again, to the presence of a local elite eager to engage with the prince. Some insight into 10th-century Beneventan society is offered by a set of documents contained in the third section of the „Chronicon Sanctae Sophie“, namely diplomas in favour of individuals, who are often referred to as fideles of the prince.^[100] Although 10th-century Benevento has not yet been thoroughly investigated, these diplomas suggest a social milieu still active from a political standpoint. In conclusion, the political landscape of Benevento, while certainly narrower than that of the previous century, could not be ignored by the Capuan princes, who continued to visit the city and engage with its elite.

6 Final Remarks

During the 8th and 9th centuries, the shaping of capital cities in Lombard Southern Italy was obviously related to the presence of political authority, which could be simply physical or enacted in public spaces. In order to be (or remain) a capital, it was essential for a city to serve as a venue for interaction between the Lombard duke/prince and local elites, who defined their status through their relationship with the palatium.

Before its conquest by the Lombard Kingdom in 774, Benevento was already marked out as a capital. Here the dukes lived in a palace, which was the preferred seat also for the administration of justice, while the Lombard aristocracy owned houses in the city, as well as landed properties throughout the duchy. Before his self-proclamation as prince in 774, Arechis endowed Benevento with a unique position also in the domain of sacred geography, by translating relics into the church he had built, Santa Sofia.

The transition from duchy to principality was a good time for Arechis to define his public authority in a new way, also in relation to the Benevento elite. Thanks to his well-established political power, which was rooted in the ducal period, Arechis chose another city as his primary residence, Salerno, which he refounded before 774 for strategic and perhaps also economic reasons. There he built a new court, to which the aristocracy had to travel for audiences, which meant implicitly acknowledging the different and higher position of the princeps. Arechis also decided to associate the memory of himself and his family not so much with Benevento as with Salerno, by choosing to be buried in the city’s cathedral.

The following dynasty, the Siconids, had to distance themselves from the first prince and his influential public model, in order to shape and legitimise their own political authority. Consequently, Sico and Sicard renewed the relationship between the Lombard prince and Benevento, the ancient capital, and specifically invested in the cathedral – a connection that was maintained by the following dynasty, the Radelchids. This was also linked to the Siconids’ need to make their own presence felt in the political arena in Benevento, which was home to a fierce and increasingly competitive aristocracy.

The split of the principality of Benevento in 849 led to the decline of the princes’ power, a situation which was further complicated by other issues, such as Muslim and Byzantine efforts at conquest and the presence of Emperor Louis II in Southern Italy. It also resulted in both a decrease in political competition within the capital and the emergence of autonomist trends among local officials. Despite a situation of general decline, Benevento always remained the seat of the highest political authority and was recognised as a centre of major importance even after the year 900, when the Principality of Capua-Benevento was established. The Landulfid dynasty still preferred Capua, i. e. the city where their power was traditionally based, but the princes were compelled to travel to the ancient capital not only to assert their authority in the most significant urban spaces, but also to deal with an aristocracy that, no matter how weakened, continued to claim a close relationship with their public power.

Sources of Figures

Fig. 1–4: © Giulia Zornetta.