A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

or CAE'LIUS VIBENNA, the leader of an Etruscan army, who is said to have come to Rome at the invitation of one of the early Roman kings, and to have settled with his troops on the hill called after him the Caelian. In whose reign however he came, was differently stated, as Tacitus observes. (Ann. 4.65.) Tacitus himself places his arrival at Rome in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, and this is in accordance with a mutilated passage of Festus (s. v. Tuscum vicum), in which, moreover, Caeles and Vibenna are spoken of as brothers. Festus, however, in another passage (s. v. Caelius Mons), Dionysius (2.36), and Varro (L. L. 5.46, ed. Müllerr, state that Caeles came to Rome in the age of Romulus to assist him against the Sabines. The Etruscan story, which is preserved in the speech of the emperor Claudius, of which considerable fragments were discovered at Lyons, differs considerably from the preceding ones. According to the Etruscan account, Servius Tullius, afterwards king of Rome, was originally a follower of Caeles Vivenna, whose fortunes lie shared, and that afterwards overcome by a multitude of disasters he migrated to Rome with the remains of the army of Caeles, and occupied the Caelian hill, which he called after the name of his former commander. It is probable that these different accounts refer to two distinct Etruscan migrations to Rome, and that Caeles Vibenna is thus represented as the leader of each. (Niebuhr, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. p. 381, &c.; Müller, Etrusker, vol. i. p. 116, &c.)