It occupies the site of the ancient Beneventum, originally Maleventum or Maluentum, supposed in the imperial period to have been founded by Diomedes.
It was said that Zeus threw it down from heaven when Ilus was founding the city of Ilium, Odysseus and Diomedes carried it off from the temple of Athena, and thus made the capture of Troy possible.
The Latin grammar used was based on the same authorities as those of Charisius and Diomedes, which accounts for the many points of similarity.
The tradition was continued in the 4th century by Nonius Marcellus and C. Marius Victorinus, both Africans; Aelius Donatus, the grammarian and commentator on Terence and Virgil, Flavius Sosipater Charisius and Diomedes, and Servius, the author of a valuable commentary on Virgil.
An oracle having declared that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Heracles, Odysseus and Diomedes (or Neoptolemus) were sent to fetch Philoctetes.