Description : Aeclanum (also spelled Aeculanum, Italian: Eclano, Ancient Greek: Ἀικούλανον) was an ancient town of Samnium, southern Italy, about 25 km east-southeast of Beneventum, on the Via Appia. It lies in Passo di Mirabella, near the modern Mirabella Eclano. Aeclanum became the chief town of the Hirpini, after Beneventum had become a Roman colony. Sulla captured it in 89 BC by setting on fire the wooden breastwork by which it was defended, and sacked it. It quickly recovered, new fortifications were erected, and it became a municipium. Hadrian, who repaired the Via Appia from Beneventum to this point, made it a colonia. With the Lombard invasion of Italy, in the 6th century AD, it was annexed to the Duchy of Benevento, but was captured and destroyed by Eastern Roman forces under Constans II in 663 and never recovered, being reduced to a small hamlet known as Quintodecimo, a name that referred to its distance of 15 Roman miles from Benevento.
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