The Binbelli (variant Bimbelli) were an ancient Ligurian people of Cisalpine Italy, known only from a single mention by Pliny the Elder.
Name Pliny names the Binbelli in his enumeration of the 'most notable Ligurians' (Ligurum celeberrimi). Having distinguished those beyond the Alps, he lists on the Italian side, in order, the Veneni, Turri, Soti, Bagienni, Statielli, Binbelli, Maielli, Caburriates, Casmonates and Velleiates, the Binbelli falling between the Statielli and the Maielli.Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia, 3:46–48.
Nothing else is recorded of them. The earlier reading Vibelli is erroneous. The manuscript tradition of Pliny's list is in any case unstable.
The ethnonym carries the suffix -elli, which has been noted as concentrated among the peoples of central Liguria, shared with the Statielli and the Maielli, and which also occurs in Gaul, in the Tarbelli of Aquitania and the Unelli of Gallia Lugdunensis. Giulia Petracco Sicardi sees the suffix attached to a base *bib(o)- with a nasal infix, of uncertain origin.
Geography They are cited by Piny between the Statielli (around present-day Acqui Terme) and the Maielli.
References
Primary sources Pliny the Elder. Naturalis Historia, book III. Edited by H. Zehnacker. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1998.
Bibliography