Avile Vipinas

Avile Vipinas — Aulus Vibenna to the Romans — is one of the two warrior brothers of Vulci whose deeds the Etruscans remembered in paint and on bronze. In the great frieze of the François Tomb he and his companions fall on champions of Volsinii, Sovana and Rome in a night attack, while Macstrna cuts his bound brother free. On mirrors he appears with that brother, closing in on the seer Cacu. Whether the Vibennas were historical condottieri or purely legendary is not settled; what is certain is that the Etruscans treated them as named individuals with a story of their own, which is why they are recorded here as mortals rather than as figures of cult.

Domains

• war

Relations

• sibling: Caile Vipinas
• enemy: Cacu

Sources

• François Tomb, Vulci, battle frieze.
• Etruscan mirrors depicting the Vibenna brothers and Cacu.
• Reference articles 'Aulus Vibenna' and 'Caelius Vibenna', on the brothers and their tradition.