It was fought near Beneventum, in southern Italy, between the forces of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus in Greece, and the Romans, led by consul Manius Curius Dentatus.

Besides the Tarentines, three Italic peoples of southern Italy, the Samnites, Lucani and Bruttii, who were in conflict with the Romans, fought alongside the forces of this Greek king.

He wrote that during the three years Pyrrhus spent campaigning in Sicily, the Samnites suffered many defeats at the hands of the Romans and lost a substantial part of their territory.

Cassius Dio wrote that the Samnites being hard pressed by the Romans caused Pyrrhus to set forth again to come to their assistance.

The two consuls for 275 BC, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus Caudinus and Manius Curius Dentatus, were fighting in Lucania and Samnium respectively.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote that Pyrrhus marched through "long trails that were not even used by people but were mere goat-paths through woods and crags, would keep no order and, even before the enemy came in sight, would be weakened in body by thirst and fatigue.

Plutarch wrote that Manius Curius led his men out of the camp and attacked the enemy advance guard and captured some elephants which were left behind.

The Romans killed two elephants, and hemming eight others in a place that had no outlet, took them alive when the Indian mahouts surrendered them; and they wrought great slaughter among the soldiers.

Finally, the Romans won the day, killing many men and capturing eight elephants, and they occupied the enemy's entrenchments.