VIBIA. - The so-called "hypogeum of V." is also known under other names, such as "of the syncretists", "of the little nuns"; better, Wilpert called it the "syncretist catacomb" (Pitture, p. 134) because from recent excavations it proves to be fairly extensive, with frequent little stairways that led into cells sub divo.
It was pointed out for the first time by G. G. Bottari (Roma sotterranea, III, Rome 1754), who identified it as part of the cemetery of Callistus and did not understand the paintings at all, which were later published rationally by R. Garrucci and better reproduced by G. Wilpert. Notable is the arcosolium, belonging to a certain Vincentius, priest of the god Sabazius, and to his wife V. There is the scene of the abreptio Vibies, and then her judgment before the tribunal on which Pluto Dispater sits, with Proserpina Aera Cura. To the left of the tribunal are the three goddesses of destiny ("Fata divina"), to the right is V. accompanied by Alcestis and by Mercurius nuntius. There follows the scene in which the angelus bonus introduces V. (inductio Vibies) among the bonorum iudicio iudicati, who are seated.
In the inscription of Vincentius, outside the arcosolium, the expressions manduca Vibe, lude were interpreted by F. Cumont (Les mystères de Sabazius et le judaïsme, in Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des inscr. et belles lettres, 1906, pp. 63-79) in a moral sense, while M. P. Nilsson recently gave them a more materialistic sense (A propos du tombeau de Vincentius, in Mélanges Charles Picard, II, Paris 1949, pp. 764-69). E. Stevenson pointed out that not far from this arcosolium he had found Christian inscriptions and a cubiculum having at the center of the vault the figure of Christ among four orants; a cubiculum later seen by Wilpert and recently rediscovered. Perhaps the hypogeum found not far away in 1915, called "of the hunters" because of the hunting scenes painted in it and also with Christian inscriptions, should be connected with this cemetery region as well.
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Enrico Josi