Sicard (died 839) was the Prince of Benevento from 832. He was the last prince of a united Benevento which covered most of the Mezzogiorno. On his death, the principality descended into civil war which split it permanently (except for very briefly under Pandulf Ironhead from 977 to 981). He was the son and successor of the Spoletan Sico.

He warred against the Saracens and his neighbours continually, especially Sorrento, Naples, and Amalfi. He was the strongest military and economic power in the region. By the Pactum Sicardi of 4 July 836, he signed a five-year armistice with the three aforementioned cities and recognised the right of travel of their merchants. Nonetheless, war continued. In a war of 837 with Duke Andrew II of Naples, the latter called in the first Saracens as allies and a trend began, drawing more and more Moslems into Christian wars on the peninsula. He also captured Amalfi in 838 by sea.

Despite his warmaking, he was also a builder. He built a new church in Benevento and to equip it with relics, rescued those of Saint Bartholomew, then in the Lipari Islands, from the Saracens by hiring some Amalfitan merchants to retrieve them. In his capture of Amalfi, he took the relics of Saint Trofimena, recently brought there from Minori, Italy.

Benevento [beneˈvɛnto]  listen  (Neapolitan: Beneviento) is a city and comune of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, 50 kilometres (31 mi) northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill 130 metres (430 ft) above sea-level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the Sabato. It is also the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop.

Benevento occupies the site of the ancient Beneventum, originally Maleventum or still earlier Maloenton. The "-vent" portion of the name probably refers to a market-place and is a common element in ancient place names. The Romans theorized that it meant "the site of bad events", from Mal(um) + eventum. In the imperial period it was supposed to have been founded by Diomedes after the Trojan War.

Due to its artistic and cultural significance, the Santa Sofia Church in Benevento was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011, as part of a group of seven historic buildings inscribed as Longobards in Italy, Places of Power (568–774 A.D.).

The Province of Benevento (Italian: Provincia di Benevento) is a province in the Campania region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Benevento.

Geography

The province has an area of 2,071 km², and a total population of 316,464 (2012). There are 78 comuni in the province (for the full list, see Comuni of the Province of Benevento). The biggest municipalities, the only ones over 10,000 inhabitants, are Benevento, Montesarchio, Sant'Agata de' Goti and San Giorgio del Sannio.

The territory of the province of Benevento closely approximates that of the Principality of Benevento in the mid and late eleventh century. It borders Molise on the North, Apulia on the East, the province of Avellino and that of Napoli on the South, and the province of Caserta on the West.

The lowest point is in the comune of Limatola (44 meters above sea level), while the highest point is Monte Mutria (1822 meters), one of the mountains of the Matese range, which separates the province of Benevento from Molise.