Quirinus

Denarius picturing Quirinus on the obverse, and Ceres enthroned on the reverse, a commemoration by a moneyer in 56 BC of a Cerialia presented by an earlier Gaius Memmius as aedile^[1]

In Roman mythology and religion, Quirinus ( /kwɪˈraɪnəs/;^[2] Latin: Quirīnus, [kʷɪˈriːnʊs]) is an early god of the Roman state. In Augustan Rome, Quirinus was also an epithet of Janus, as Janus Quirinus.^[3] His name may be derived from the Sabine word quiris "spear."

Etymology

Quirinus is probably an adjective meaning "wielder of the spear" (Quiris, in the Sabine language, cf. Janus Quirinus). Other suggested etymologies are: (i) from the Sabine town Cures; (2) from curia, i.e. he was the god of the Roman state as represented by the thirty curies, first proposed by Krestchmer. A. B. Cook (Class. Rev. xviii., p. 368) explains Quirinus as the oak-god (quercus), and Quirites as the men of the oaken spear.^[4]

History

Quirinus was most likely a Sabine god of war. 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 the classical Greek culture.

In Plutarch's the Life of Romulus, he writes 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 in a vision. He claimed that the king had instructed him to tell his countrymen that he, Romulus was Quirinus.^[5] By the end of the first century BC, Quirinus would be considered to be the deified legendary king.^[6][7]

Historian it:Angelo Brelich has 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.^[8] The last day of the festival is called the Quirinalia and corresponds with the traditional day of Romulus' death. On that day, the Romans would toast spelt as an offering to the goddess Fornax. In the traditional legend of Romulus' death, he was killed and cut into pieces by the nobles and each of them took a part of his body home and buried it on their land.

Brelich claims that 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 archetype that arises when such a split takes place in a culture's mythology. 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 the original twelfth arval brethren (Fratres Arvales).^[9] 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.^[10]

Another example of a Dema deity is the myth of Hainuwele.

His early importance led to his inclusion in the first Capitoline Triad, along with Mars (then an agriculture god) and Jupiter.^[11] Overtime, however, he became less significant, and he was absent from the later, more widely known triad (he and Mars had been replaced by Juno and Minerva). Varro mentions the Capitolium Vetus, an earlier cult site on the Quirinal, devoted to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva,^[12] among whom Martial makes a distinction between the "old Jupiter" and the "new".^[13] Eventually, Romans began to favor personal and mystical cults over the official state belief system. These included those of Bacchus, Cybele, and Isis, leaving only his flamen to worship him. The Flamen Quirinalis who remained, however, were the patrician flamines maiores ("greater flamens") who had oversight over the Pontifex Maximus.^[14]

Depiction

In earlier Roman art, he was portrayed as a bearded man with religious and military clothing. However, he was almost never depicted in later Roman belief systems. He was also often associated with the myrtle.

Festivals

His festival was the Quirinalia, held on February 17.

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 – it was chosen as the seat of the royal house after the taking of Rome by the Savoia and later it became the residence of the Presidents of the Italian Republic.

See also

• Adolf Ellegard Jensen

Notes

1. Eric Orlin, Foreign Cults in Rome: Creating a Roman Empire (Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 144.
2. "Quirinus". Collins Dictionary. n.d. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
3. In the prayer of the fetiales quoted by Livy (I.32.10); Macrobius (Sat. I.9.15);
4. "Quirinus". Encyclopædia Britannica 1911. Retrieved 2011-04-05..
5. Plutarch, Lives, Romulus, ch.28 p.2 http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/roman/texts/plutarch/lives/romulus*.html
6. Fishwich, Duncan The Imperial Cult in the Latin West Brill, 2nd edition, 1993 ISBN 978-90-04-07179-7
7. Evans, Jane DeRose The Art of Persuasion University of Michigan Press 1992 ISBN 0-472-10282-6
8. II 481 ff.
9. Aulus Gellius Noctes Atticae 7. 7. 7.
10. Angelo Brelich Quirinus: una divinita' romana alla luce della comparazione storica "Studi e Materiali di Storia delle religioni" 1960.
11. Inez Scott Ryberg, "Was the Capitoline Triad Etruscan or Italic?" The American Journal of Philology 52.2 (1931), pp. 145-156.
12. Varro, De lingua latina V.158. The Capitolium Vetus was demolished in 1625 by order of Pope Barberini. See Lanciani's work on the "Shrines of Pagan Rome".
13. Martial, (V, 22.4) 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."
14. Festus, 198, L: "Quirinalis, socio imperii Romani Curibus ascito Quirino".

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Quirinus". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.