BETTONA. - An ancient episcopal city of Umbria, in the province of Perugia. It is the Umbrian-Etruscan Vettona. A famous legend in Umbrian hagiography, written after the middle of the 7th and before the 9th century, probably by a monk, the *Passio s. Protasi* (BHI 6955), mentions a certain Scipiodotus, bishop of B., who is said to have been ordained by the Prince of the Apostles during a vision and to have suffered martyrdom under Julian or Diocletian. Another legend referring exclusively to B., the *Passio s. Crispoliti* (BHG 1800), identifies Scipiodotus with Crispolito, whom St. Peter is said to have ordained while still alive. Consequently, Crispolito would be one of the 72 disciples of the Lord who came from Galilee, though the medieval hagiographer, completely ignorant of chronology, commits the anachronism of having the alleged bishop of the 1st century die under Maximian Herculius, i.e., at the beginning of the 4th century.
Local historians, relying on the romanticized data of the *Passio*, assign the Christianization of B. to the 1st century. A. Harnack, basing his argument on the dates of the martyrs, places it before 325. This conclusion is, however, rejected by F. Lanzoni, as it is based on the *Passio Crispoliti*, which among the Umbrian Passions is one of the least reliable.
At the Roman Synod of 465, a *Gaudentius episcopus Vecconensis* also subscribed to the acts, which, with greater probability, should be read as *Vettonensis* (of B.).
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