View source for Quirinus

{{short description|Roman deity}}
{{About|the Roman god}}
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{{Infobox deity
| type         = Roman
| name         = Quirinus
| deity_of     =God of the Roman state
| member_of    =  the [[Archaic Triad]]
| image        =Denarius C. Memmius C. F. Romulus.jpg
| alt          = <!-- for alternate text of the title image per [[WP:ALT]] -->
| caption      = [[Denarius]] picturing Quirinus on the [[obverse]], and [[Ceres (mythology)|Ceres]] enthroned on the reverse, a commemoration by a [[moneyer]] in 56&nbsp;BCE of a [[Cerealia]] presented by an earlier Gaius [[Memmia gens|Memmius]] as [[aedile]]<ref>{{cite book |first=Eric |last=Orlin |title=Foreign Cults in Rome: Creating a Roman Empire |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2010 |page=144}}</ref>
| other_names  =   Curinus, Corinus, Querinus, Queirinus
| cult_center  =   [[Quirinal Hill]]
|symbols=beard, religious and military clothing
|abode= Quirinal Hill
| consort      =   [[Hersilia|Hersilia-Hora]]
| parents      =  
| siblings     = 
| offspring    = 
| predecessor  =
| successor    =
| mount        = 
| gender       = male
| Etruscan_equivalent            =  
| festivals    = Quirinalia
}}
In [[Roman mythology]] and [[Roman religion|religion]], '''Quirinus''' ({{IPAc-en|k|w|ɪ|ˈ|r|aɪ|n|ə|s}} {{respell|kwi|RY|nəs}},<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/quirinus?showCookiePolicy=true |title=Quirinus |access-date=24 September 2014 |work=Collins Dictionary}}</ref> {{IPA|la|kᶣɪˈriːnʊs|lang}}) is an early god of the [[Ancient Rome|Roman state]]. In [[Augustus|Augustan]] Rome, ''Quirinus'' was also an [[epithet]] of [[Janus]], [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]], and [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]].<ref>''Janus Quirinius'' in the prayer of the [[fetiales]] quoted by [[Livy]] (I.32.10); [[Macrobius]] (''Sat.'' I.9.15); {{harvnb|Ogilvie|1970|p=84}}.</ref>

== Name ==

===Attestations===
The name of god Quirinus is recorded across Roman sources as ''Curinus'', ''Corinus'', ''Querinus'', ''Queirinus'' and ''QVIRINO'', also as fragmented ''IOVI. CYRIN[O]''.<ref>Dupraz, Emmanuel. ''Les Vestins à l'époque tardo-républicaine. Du nord-osque au latin''. France, Rouen: Publications des Universités de Rouen et du Havre. 2010. pp. 125-126.</ref> The name is also attested as a surname to [[Hercules]] as ''Hercules Quirinus''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lajoye |first1=Patrice |title=Quirinus, un ancien dieu tonnant ? Nouvelles hypothèses sur son étymologie et sa nature primitive |journal=Revue de l'histoire des religions |date=1 June 2010 |volume=227 |issue=227 |pages=175–194 |doi=10.4000/rhr.7573 |jstor=23618183 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

===Etymology===
The name ''Quirīnus'' probably stems from Latin ''[[Quirites|quirīs]]'', the name of Roman citizens in their peacetime function. Since both ''quirīs'' and ''Quirīnus'' are connected with Sabellic immigrants into Rome in ancient legends, it may be a loanword.{{Sfn|de Vaan|2008|p=|pp=509–510}} The meaning "wielder of the spear" (Sabine ''quiris'', 'spear', cf. ''Janus Quirinus''), or a derivation from the Sabine town of [[Cures, Sabinum|Cures]], have been proposed by [[Ovid]] in his ''[[Fasti (poem)|''Fasti'']]'' 2.477-480.<ref>{{EB1911|wstitle=Quirinus|volume=22}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=April 2020}}

Some scholars have interpreted the name as a contraction of ''*co-viri-nus'' ("god of the assemblymen", cf. [[Curia|''cūria'']] < ''*co-viria''), descending from an earlier ''*co-wironos'', itself from the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] noun {{lang|ine-x-proto|wihₓrós}} ("man").{{sfn|Ogilvie|1970|p=84, noting a Sabine origin}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Puhvel|first=Jaan|url={{google books |id=zt4nAAAAYAAJ |plainurl=y}} |title=Comparative mythology|date=1987|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-0-8018-3413-4|page=289 |author-link=Jaan Puhvel}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Matasović|first=Ranko|author-link=Ranko Matasović|date=2010|title=A Reader in Comparative Mythology|url=http://mudrac.ffzg.unizg.hr/~rmatasov/PIE%20Religion.pdf|publisher=University of Zagreb}}</ref> Linguist [[Michiel de Vaan]] argues that this etymology "is not credible phonetically and not very compelling semantically".{{Sfn|de Vaan|2008|pp=509–510}}

==Depiction and worship==
{{further|Ancient Roman religion|Flamen Quirinalis#Quirinalia}}
[[File:Numerius Fabius Pictor, denarius, 126 BC, RRC 268-1b.jpg|thumb|[[Denarius]] of 126 BCE; on the right is the ''flamen Quirinalis'' with ''QVIRIN'' on his shield.]]
In earlier Roman [[art]], Quirinus was portrayed as a bearded man with religious and military clothing. However, he was almost never depicted in later [[Roman art]] due to the process of [[hellenisation]]. His main [[festival]] was the '''Quirinalia''', held on February&nbsp;17.<ref name="StultorumFeriae" />

The priest of Quirinus, the ''[[Flamen Quirinalis]]'', was one of the three patrician ''flamines maiores'' ("major [[flamen]]s") who had precedence over the [[Pontifex Maximus]].<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Sextus Pompeius Festus |author=Festus |title=De Verborum Significatione |title-link=De Verborum Significatione |at=198, L |quote=''Quirinalis, socio imperii Romani Curibus ascito Quirino''}}</ref>

==History==
Quirinus most likely was originally a [[Sabines|Sabine]] war god. The Sabines had a settlement near the eventual site of [[Rome]], and erected an altar to Quirinus on the ''Collis Quirinalis'', [[Quirinal Hill]], one of the [[Seven hills of Rome]]. When the Romans settled in the area, the cult of Quirinus became part of their early belief system. This occurred before the later influences from classical Greek culture.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}

===Deified Romulus===
By the time of the poet Ennius in the 2nd century,{{sfn|Ogilvie|1970|p=84, rejecting arguments that [[Julius Caesar]], as ''pontifex maximus'' from 63&nbsp;BCE, was involved in the creation of the legend}} Quirinus was considered the [[Apotheosis#Ancient Rome|deified]] legendary first king, [[Romulus]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Fishwich |first=Duncan |title=The Imperial Cult in the Latin West |publisher=Brill |edition=2nd |year=1993 |isbn=978-90-04-07179-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4II_mqxM8s0C&q=romulus+quirinus&pg=PA53 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Evans |first=Jane de&nbsp;Rose |title=The Art of Persuasion |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-472-10282-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2AsRrF3ej38C&q=romulus+quirinus&pg=PA103 |via=Google Books}}</ref> 

In his [[Parallel Lives|''Life of Romulus'']], [[Plutarch]] wrote that, shortly after Rome's founder had disappeared under what some considered suspicious circumstances, a Roman noble named [[Proculus Julius]] reported that [[Romulus]] had come to him while he was travelling. He claimed that [[Romulus]] had instructed him to tell his countrymen that he, Romulus, was Quirinus.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Plutarch |author=Plutarch |title=Lives |chapter=Romulus |at=ch.&nbsp;28 p.&nbsp;2 |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/romulus*.html}}</ref> This story also likely dates to before the 1st century&nbsp;BC.{{sfn|Ogilvie|1970|pp=84–85 (citing {{harvnb|Livy|loc=1.16}}), arguing that it is connected to the Julian clan's claims of Alban descent}}

===Brelich's argument for split deification===
Historian Angelo Brelich argued that Quirinus and [[Romulus]] were originally the same divine entity which was split into a founder hero and a god when Roman religion became demythicised. To support this, he points to the association of both Romulus and Quirinus with the grain [[spelt]], through the ''[[Fornacalia]]'' or ''Stultorum Feriae'', according to Ovid's ''Fasti''.<ref name=StultorumFeriae>{{cite book |author-link=Ovid |author=Ovid |title=Fasti |at=II, 481&nbsp;ff}}</ref>

The last day of the festival is called the ''[[Quirinalia]]'' and corresponds with the traditional day of Romulus's death. On that day, the Romans would toast spelt as an offering to the goddess [[Fornax (mythology)|Fornax]]. In one version of the legend of Romulus's death cited by Plutarch, he was killed and cut into pieces by the [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|nobles]] and each of them took a part of his body home and buried it on their land.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

Brelich claimed this pattern – a festival involving a staple crop, a god, and a tale of a slain founding hero whose body parts are buried in the soil – is a recognized [[mytheme]] that arises when such a split takes place in a culture's mythology (see ''[[Dema deity]]'' archetype). The possible presence of the ''[[Flamen Quirinalis]]'' at the festival of [[Acca Larentia]] would corroborate this thesis, given the fact that Romulus is a stepson of hers, and one of the original twelve arval brethren ([[Fratres Arvales]]).<ref>{{cite book |author=Aulus Gellius |title=Noctes Atticae |at=7.7.7}}</ref>

===The Grabovian pantheon===
The association of Quirinus and Romulus is further supported by a connection with Vofionos, the third god in the triad of the Grabovian gods of [[Iguvium]]. Vofionos would be the equivalent of [[Liber]] or [[Teutates]], in [[Latium]] and among the [[Celts]] respectively.<ref>{{cite book |first=Angelo |last=Brelich |title=Quirinus: una divinita' romana alla luce della comparazione storica |series=Studi e Materiali di Storia delle religioni |year=1960}}</ref>

===The Capitoline Triad===
His early importance led to Quirinus's inclusion in the [[Archaic Triad]] (the first [[Capitoline Triad]]), along with [[Mars (mythology)|Mars]] (then an agriculture god) and [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Inez Scott |last=Ryberg |title=Was the Capitoline Triad Etruscan or Italic? |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=52 |issue=2 |year=1931 |pages=145–156|doi=10.2307/290109 |jstor=290109 }}</ref>

Over time, however, Quirinus became less significant, and he was absent from the later, more widely known triad (he and Mars had been replaced by [[Juno (mythology)|Juno]] and [[Minerva]]). [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]] mentions the ''Capitolium Vetus'', an earlier cult site on the Quirinal, devoted to Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva,<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Varro |author=Varro |title=De lingua latina |at=V.158}}</ref>{{efn|The Capitolium Vetus was demolished in 1625 by order of Pope Barberini.<ref>See Lanciani's work on the "Shrines of Pagan Rome".</ref>}} among whom [[Martial]] makes a distinction between the "old Jupiter" and the "new".<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Martial |author=Martial |title=Epigrams |volume=V |at=22.4 |quote=Martial remarks on a position on the [[Esquiline Hill]] from which one might see ''hinc novum Iovem, inde veterem'', "here the new Jupiter, there the old."}}</ref>

===Fade into obscurity===
Eventually, Romans began to favor personal and mystical cults over the official state belief system. These included those of [[Dionysus|Bacchus]], [[Cybele]], and [[Isis]], leaving only Quirinus's flamen to worship him.{{Citation needed|date=October 2020}}

===Legacy===
Even centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, the [[Quirinal]] hill in Rome, originally named from the deified [[Romulus]], was still associated with power. in 1583 [[Gregory XIII]] chose the site for his summer palace, this palace would come to be known as the [[Quirinal Palace]]. After the [[Capture of Rome]], it was chosen as the seat of the [[Kingdom of Italy|Kingdom]] by the [[House of Savoy]] and later after the [[1946 Italian institutional referendum|Abolition of the Monarchy]] it became the residence of the [[President of Italy|Presidents of the Italian Republic]].{{cn|date=August 2022}}

==See also==
* [[Adolf Ellegard Jensen]]

==Footnotes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==

=== Modern sources ===
*{{Cite journal|last=Briquel|first=Dominique|date=1996|title=Remarques sur le dieu Quirinus|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1996_num_74_1_4097|journal=Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire|volume=74|issue=1|pages=99–120|doi=10.3406/rbph.1996.4097|author-link=Dominique Briquel}}
* {{Cite book|last=de Vaan|first=Michiel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ecZ1DwAAQBAJ|title=Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages|date=2008|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004167971|language=en|author-link=Michiel de Vaan}}
* {{Cite book|last=Dumézil|first=Georges|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WngbAQAAMAAJ|title=Archaic Roman Religion: With an Appendix on the Religion of the Etruscans|date=1966|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-0-8018-5482-8|edition=1996|language=en|author-link=Georges Dumézil}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Lajoye |first1=Patrice |title=Quirinus, un ancien dieu tonnant ? Nouvelles hypothèses sur son étymologie et sa nature primitive |journal=Revue de l'histoire des religions |date=1 June 2010 |volume=227 |issue=227 |pages=175–194 |doi=10.4000/rhr.7573 |jstor=23618183 |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite book |last=Ogilvie |first=R M |title=Commentary on Livy: Books 1–5 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-814432-6 |date=1970 |edition=Reprinted with addenda }}

=== Ancient sources ===
* {{Cite wikisource |author=Livy |author-link=Livy |title=Ab urbe condita |trans-title=From the founding of the city |translator-last=Roberts |translator-first=Canon |year=1905 |wslink=From the Founding of the City |orig-date=1st century AD |wslanguage=en |ref={{harvid|Livy}} }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last1=Basanoff |first1=V. |title=Note sur la triade " indo-européenne " à Rome |journal=Revue de l'histoire des religions |date=1946 |volume=132 |issue=1/3 |pages=110–114 |doi=10.3406/rhr.1946.5522 |jstor=23665537 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Ben Abdallah |first1=Zeïneb |title=QVIRINVS, DEVS PATER. Une résurgence de la religion romaine archaïque en province proconsulaire d'Afrique sous l'Empereur Sévère Alexandre |journal=Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres |date=1999 |volume=143 |issue=2 |pages=457–468 |doi=10.3406/crai.1999.16004 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Dumézil |first1=Georges |title=Les cultes de la regia, les trois fonctions ct la triade Jupiter Mars Quirinus |journal=Latomus |date=1954 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=129–139 |jstor=41517672 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Koch |first1=Carl |title=Bemerkungen zum römischen Quirinuskult |journal=Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte |date=1953 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |id={{ProQuest|1305391173}} |doi=10.1163/157007353X00090 |jstor=23894289 }}
* {{Cite journal|last=York|first=Michael|date=1988|title=Romulus and Remus, Mars and Quirinus|journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies|volume=16|issue=1–2|pages=153–172|issn=0092-2323}}

{{Roman religion}}
{{Roman myth (mortal)}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:8th century BC in the Roman Kingdom]]
[[Category:Roman gods]]
[[Category:Romulus and Remus]]