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ancient Roman religion Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule. The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, ...
, the Flamen Quirinalis was the
flamen A (plural ''flamens'' or ''flamines'') was a priest of the ancient Roman religion who was assigned to one of eighteen deities with official cults during the Roman Republic. The most important of these were the three (or "major priests"), who ser ...
or high priest of the god
Quirinus 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''. Name Attestations The name of god Quirinus is recorded across Roman so ...
. He was one of the three ''flamines maiores'', third in order of importance after the Flamen Dialis and the
Flamen Martialis In ancient Roman religion, the Flamen Martialis was the high priest of the official state cult of Mars, the god of war. He was one of the '' flamines maiores'', the three high priests who were the most important of the fifteen flamens. The Flamen ...
. 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 theology of Quirinus is complex and difficult to interpret. From early times, he was identified with the deified
Romulus Romulus () was the legendary founder and first king of Rome. Various traditions attribute the establishment of many of Rome's oldest legal, political, religious, and social institutions to Romulus and his contemporaries. Although many of these ...
, who originally seems to have shared some common theological and mythological elements with Quirinus.


Ritual functions

The ''flamen Quirinalis'' presided over at least three festivals, the
Consualia The Consualia or ''Consuales Ludi'' was the name of two ancient Roman festivals in honor of Consus, a tutelary deity of the harvest and stored grain. ''Consuales Ludi'' harvest festivals were held on August 21, Plutarch. "Life if Romulus", in ...
Aestiva on August 21,
Robigalia 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 Rob ...
on April 25, and Larentalia on December 23. Beside these festivals that of ''Quirinus'' himself, the Quirinalia, would almost surely require the participation of the ''flamen Quirinalis''. The ''Quirinalia'' were held on February 17 and must be among the oldest Roman yearly festivals. These festivals were all devoted to the cult of deities of remarkable antiquity:
Consus 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, cove ...
has been described as the god of the stored grains (from ''condere'', to store grains in an underground barn or silos). Robigus was an evil spirit that could cause mildew and thus damage growing wheat. Larenta was a figure connected to the primordial legendary times of Rome or to the founding of the city itself.


Consualia Aestiva

During the ''Consualia Aestiva'' the flamen Quirinalis and the Vestals offered a sacrifice at Consus's underground altar in the
Circus Maximus The Circus Maximus (Latin for "largest circus"; Italian: ''Circo Massimo'') is an ancient Roman chariot-racing stadium and mass entertainment venue in Rome, Italy. In the valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills, it was the first and l ...
. Four days later the Vestals took part in the rites of the festival of
Ops In ancient Roman religion, Ops or ''Opis'' (Latin: "Plenty") was a fertility deity and earth goddess of Sabine origin. Her equivalent in Greek mythology was Rhea. Iconography In Ops' statues and coins, she is figured sitting down, as Chthon ...
, goddess of agricultural plenty, the Opiconsivia. This occasion was related to Consus too and was performed in the Regia of the forum, where Ops had a very sacred chapel, open only to the pontifex maximus and the Vestals.


Robigalia

The Robigalia of April 25 required the sacrificial offering of blood and entrails from a puppy, and perhaps also the entrails of a sheep. The rite took place near the fifth milestone of the Via Claudia. Ovid talks of a ''lucus'' (grove) on the site and a long prayer pronounced by the flamen Quirinalis.


Larentalia

The Larentalia of December 23 were a '' parentatio'', an act of funerary cult in memory of Larunda or Larentia. A sacrifice was offered at the site of her supposed tomb on the Velabrum. She was not a goddess but a sort of heroine, with two conflicting legends: In the first story (and probably elder one) Larentia is a
courtesan Courtesan, in modern usage, is a euphemism for a "kept" mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients. The term historically referred to a courtier, a person who attended the court of a monarch or othe ...
who had become fabulously rich after spending a night in the sanctuary of Heracles. Later she had bestowed her fortune on the Roman people on the condition that a rite named after her were held yearly. In the second story she is Romulus and Remus's
wet nurse A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, or if she is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Wet-nursed children may be known as "milk-siblings", and in some cu ...
, also considered the mother of the Fratres Arvales and a she wolf. Gellius in a detailed passage on Larentia makes a specific reference to the ''flamen Quirinalis''.
Macrobius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius (fl. AD 400), was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was ...
makes reference to the presence of an unnamed flamen, "per flaminem". This flamen could neither be the Dialis nor the Martialis, let alone the minores, given the nature of ''parentatio'' (funeral rite) of the festival, leaving only the Quirinalis as the likely flamen mentioned by Macrobius.


Quirinalia

The Quirinalia occurred on
February 17 Events Pre-1600 * 1370 – Northern Crusades: Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Teutonic Knights meet in the Battle of Rudau. * 1411 – Following the successful campaigns during the Ottoman Interregnum, Musa Çelebi, one of the sons ...
in the
Roman calendar The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the dictator Julius Caesar and emperor Augustus in the late 1stcenturyBC and some ...
('). Some scholars connect the Quirinalia with the anniversary date of the murder of Romulus by his subjects on the basis of the calendar of Polemius Silvius and of Ovid, where the story of Romulus's apotheosis is related, and accordingly interpret the festival as a funerary ''parentatio''. Dumezil on the other hand remarks that in all other sources the date of this event is July 7 ( Nonae Caprotinae). Neither there is any record of such a ritual in ancient sources. He puts forward another interpretation based on the fact that the only religious ritual recorded for that day are the ''stultorum feriae'', i.e. the last day of the
Fornacalia The Fornacalia was an Ancient Roman religious festival celebrated in honor of the goddess ''Fornax'', a divine personification of the oven (''fornax''), and was related to the proper baking of bread. History The Fornacalia may have been establishe ...
. This festival used to be celebrated separately by each of the thirty ''curiae''. Therefore the Fornacalia had no fixed date and were not mentioned on calendars. Every year the '' curio maximus'' established the days for each
curia Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came ...
. However those who had missed their day (''stulti'', dull ones) were allowed an extra off day to make amends collectively. Festus and Plutarch state that the ''stultorum feriae'' were in fact the ''Quirinalia''. Their assertion seems acceptable to Dumézil for two reasons: # If it were not so then no Roman writer gave any indication of their content. This is highly unlikely for in Rome religious rituals often survived their theological justification. # The ''stultorum feriae'' bring to an end the organised operation of the ''curiae'' in the ''Fornacalia'' and this is a guarantee of their antiquity. The connection hypothesised by Dumezil between the ''flamen Quirinalis'' and an activity regulated through the ''curiae'' is important as it supports the interpretation of ''Quirinus'' as a god of the Roman civil society. The ''curiae'' were in fact the original smallest grouping of Roman society. The most probable etymology of ''curia'' is considered by many scholars, to be rooted in *co-viria and that of ''quirites'' in *co-virites. The Virites were goddesses worshipped along with Quirinus: Gellius, writes to have read in the pontificales libri, that dea Hora and Virites were invoked in prayers in association with the god. The Virites, Quirinus's female paredrae, must be the expression of the god's ''virtus'', in the case of Quirinus namely the personification of the individuals composing Roman society as citizens, in the same way as e.g. Nerio, Mars's paredra, must be the personification of military prowess. Hence Quirinus would be the Roman homologous of the correspondent last component god of the supreme divine triad among all Italic peoples, such as the Vofionus of the Iguvine Tables, whose name too has been interpreted as a term meaning ''the increaser of the people'' (either from Loifer, or from Luther, an abbreviation from Greek Eleutheros) or simply ''the people'', related to German Leute. This hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that the two first god names at Iguvium are identical to their Roman counterpart (Jov- and Mart-) and grammatically were nouns, whereas name Vofiono- is an adjectival derivation in ''no-'' of a noun root, just as *Co-virino. Moreover philologists Vittor Pisani and Emile Benveniste have proposed a likely etymology for Vofiono- that makes it the equivalent in meaning of *Co-virino: Leudhyo-no.


Relation to Dumezil's trifunctional hypothesis

The Consualia, Robigalia, Larentalia, and the last act of Fornacalia (the Quirinalia) are the religious rituals performed by flamen Quirinalis. If Romans' traditions were conserved, rather than re-adapted, these rituals should reflect the most ancient and original nature of god Quirinus. The festivals connect him to wheat at the three important and potentially risky stages of its growth, storing, and preservation. Quirinus is thus concerned with a staple food. He cooperates with god
Consus 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, cove ...
, as is testified by the role of his flamen in the Consualia, to the aim of assuring the nurture of the Roman people. There is also a connection between the function of the flamen Quirinalis in the Quirinalia and the functioning of organized Roman society as expressed through the role played by the ''curiae'' in the Fornacalia. The ''curiae'' were in fact the smallest cell of ancient Roman society. The role of the flamen Quirinalis in the Larentalia is also significant. In the two legends concerning Larentia she is a figure related to nurture, agricultural plenty, and wealth. She rears the divine twins, is the mother of the Fratres Arvales, performers of the agricultural propitiary rite of the
Ambarvalia Ambarvalia was a Roman agricultural fertility rite held on 29 May in honor of Ceres and Dea Dia. At these festivals they sacrificed a bull, a sow, and a sheep, which, before the sacrifice, were led in procession thrice around the fields; whence ...
, and bestows wealth on her heirs and figurative children. Her story hints to the link of sexual pleasure and wealth. In the interpretation of Dumézil this has to do with the
Indo-European myth Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested � ...
of the
divine twins The Divine Twins are youthful horsemen, either gods or demigods, who serve as rescuers and healers in Proto-Indo-European mythology. Like other Proto-Indo-European divinities, the Divine Twins are not directly attested by archaeological or writt ...
, but Romulus's connections to kingship and war are not necessarily part of the original conception of Quirinus. According to Dumezil the theological character of the god as reflected in the functions of his flamen is thence civil and social, being related to nurture, fertility, plenty, wealth, and pleasure. This features make him the chief of all the gods of what he defines as the ''
third function Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...
'' in Indo-European religions.


Brelich's identification of Romulus with Quirinus as a mythical archetype of primitive religion

Italo-Hungarian religious historian Angelo Brelich advanced a hypothesis that could bring together all of the poorly understood elements of the religious traditions concerning Romulus and Quirinus. He argues it is not likely that the two figures were merged at a later stage in the development of the legend, but they were in fact one since the most ancient times. This view allows us to understand why the Fornacalia, the feast of the toasting of spelt, were also one of the traditional dates of the murder of Romulus: according to this tradition the king was killed by the ''patres'', his body dismembered and each bit of it buried within their own plots of land. Brelich sees in this episode a clear reflection of a mythical theme found in primitive religion and known as the
Dema deity Dema Deity is a concept introduced by Adolf Ellegard Jensen following his research on religious sacrifice. Jensen was a German ethnologist who furthered the theory of Cultural Morphology founded by Leo Frobenius. Description The term dema comes f ...
archetype (from the character of
Hainuwele Hainuwele, "The Coconut Girl", is a figure from the Wemale and Alune folklore of the island of Seram in the Maluku Islands, Indonesia. Her story is an origin myth. The myth of Hainuwele was recorded by German ethnologist Adolf E. Jensen foll ...
in Melanesian religion first described by German ethnologist Adolf Ellegard Jensen). In such a pattern a founder hero is murdered and dismembered, his corpse turning into the staple food of his own ethnos."Quirinus: una divinita' romana alla luce della comparazione storica" in ''Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni''1964.


References

{{Reflist, 25em Ancient Roman religious titles