Quirites is the name of Roman citizens in their peacetime functions. [1] Its use excluded military statute. During the mutiny of his legions in 47 BC, Julius Caesar expressed the dismissal of his army by addressing them as Quirites, implying his soldiers had been returned to civilian life.
Latin Quirītis most likely stems from an earlier *quiri-, although an etymology from *queri- cannot be excluded in view of the sporadic assimilation of *e to an i in the following syllable. Its original meaning remains uncertain. According to linguist Michiel de Vaan, since the quirīs and Quirīnus are connected with Sabellic immigrants into Rome in ancient legends, it may be a loanword. [1] Ancient etymologies derived the term from the Sabine word for "spear", [2] or from the Sabine capitol of Cures, after the Sabine people were assimilated early in Roman history. [3]
The etymology *ko-wir-, then *co-uiri-um, 'assembly of the men', has been proposed by some scholars, [4] although de Vaan notes that it "is not credible phonetically and not very compelling semantically". [1]
Combined in the phrase populus Romanus quirites (or quiritium) it denoted the individual citizen as contrasted with the community. Hence ius quiritium in Roman law is full Roman citizenship. Subsequently, the term was applied (sometimes in a deprecatory sense, cf. Tac. Ann. ~. 42) to the Romans in domestic affairs, Romani being reserved for foreign affairs. [5]
The English word cry comes from French crier, from Latin quirītāre, meaning 'to raise a plaintive cry, a public outcry'. According to Varro, it originally meant 'to implore the aid of the Quirītes or Roman citizens' (quiritare dicitur is qui Quiritum fidem clamans implorat). [1] [6]
Dis Pater, otherwise known as Rex Infernus or Pluto, is a Roman god of the underworld. Dis was originally associated with fertile agricultural land and mineral wealth, and since those minerals came from underground, he was later equated with the chthonic deities Pluto (Hades) and Orcus.
Cloacina was a goddess who presided over the Cloaca Maxima, the main interceptor discharge outfall of the system of sewers in Rome.
In ancient Roman religion, the god Consus was the protector of grains. He was represented by a grain seed. His altar (ara) was located at the first meta of the Circus Maximus. It was either underground, or according to other sources, covered with earth, which was swept off during the two Consualia, his festivals on August 21, December 15, and on July 7 when the pontiffs held a sacrifice there. He was thus a chthonic god.
Libertas is the Roman goddess and personification of liberty. She became a politicised figure in the late republic. She sometimes also appeared on coins from the imperial period, such as Galba's "Freedom of the People" coins during his short reign after the death of Nero. She is usually portrayed with two accoutrements: the spear and a phrygian cap, which she holds out on the spear, rather than wears on her head.
In Roman mythology and religion, Quirinus is an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an epithet of Janus, as Janus Quirinus.
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces. The month of January is named for Janus (Ianuarius). According to ancient Roman farmers' almanacs, Juno was mistaken as the tutelary deity of the month of January, but Juno is the tutelary deity of the month of June.
Cures was an ancient Sabine town between the left bank of the Tiber and the Via Salaria, about 26 miles (42 km) from Rome, in central Italy. Its remains are located in the modern commune of Fara Sabina. According to legend, it was from Cures that Titus Tatius led to the Quirinal the Sabine settlers, from whom, after their union with the settlers on the Palatine, the whole Roman people took the name Quirites. Another legend, related by Dionysius, connects the foundation of Cures with the worship of the Sabine god Quirinus, whence Quirites.
The Robigalia was a festival in ancient Roman religion held April 25, named for the god Robigus. Its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect grain fields from disease. Games (ludi) in the form of "major and minor" races were held. The Robigalia was one of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season, but the darker sacrificial elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favor to avert it.
Bellona was an ancient Roman goddess of war. Her main attribute is the military helmet worn on her head; she often holds a sword, spear, or shield, and brandishes a torch or whip as she rides into battle in a four-horse chariot. She had many temples throughout the Roman Empire. She is known for her temple outside of Rome being the official decision making centre in regards to war and for her bloodlust and madness in battle. Her iconography was extended by painters and sculptors following the Renaissance.
In Ancient Rome, the Latin term civitas, according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the cives, or citizens, united by law. It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities on the one hand and rights of citizenship on the other. The agreement has a life of its own, creating a res publica or "public entity", into which individuals are born or accepted, and from which they die or are ejected. The civitas is not just the collective body of all the citizens, it is the contract binding them all together, because each of them is a civis.
Dominus is the Latin word for master or owner. Dominus was used as a Roman imperial title. It was also the Latin title of the feudal, superior and mesne, lords, and an ecclesiastical and academic title. The ecclesiastical title was rendered through the French seigneur in English as sir, making it a common prefix for parsons before the Reformation, as in Sir Hugh Evans in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. Its shortened form Dom remains used as a prefix of honor for ecclesiastics of the Catholic Church, and especially for members of the Benedictine and other religious orders. The title was formerly also used as is, Dominus, for a Bachelor of Arts.
The Archaic Triad is a hypothetical divine triad, consisting of the three allegedly original deities worshipped on the Capitoline Hill in Rome: Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus. This structure was no longer clearly detectable in later times, and only traces of it have been identified from various literary sources and other testimonies. Many scholars dispute the validity of this identification.
The Fontana della Piazza dei Quiriti is a fountain in the Piazza dei Quiriti in Rome, in the middle of the Prati rione. The plaza is named after the inhabitants of the city of Cures, the Curites or later Quirites, namely the Sabines, who became inhabitants and co-founders of Rome. Another theory derives the name from the god Quirinus, a Roman deity.
A fetial was a type of priest in ancient Rome. They formed a collegium devoted to Jupiter as the patron of good faith.
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Mars is the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He is the son of Jupiter and Juno, and was pre-eminent among the Roman army's military gods. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him, and in October, the months which traditionally began and ended the season for both military campaigning and farming.
The Aborigines in Roman mythology are the oldest inhabitants of central Italy, connected in legendary history with Aeneas, Latinus and Evander. They were supposed to have descended from their mountain home near Reate upon Latium, where they expelled the Sicels and subsequently settled down as Latini under a King Latinus.
In ancient Roman religion, the Flamen Quirinalis was the flamen or high priest of the god Quirinus. He was one of the three flamines maiores, third in order of importance after the Flamen Dialis and the Flamen Martialis. Like the other two high priests, he was subject to numerous ritual taboos, such as not being allowed to touch metal, ride a horse, or spend the night outside Rome. His wife functioned as an assistant priestess with the title Flaminicia Quirinalis.
The gens Quirinia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens appear in history, but several are known from inscriptions.