Quirites is the name of
Roman citizens in their peacetime functions. Its use excluded military statute. During the mutiny of his legions in 47 BC,
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
expressed the dismissal of his army by addressing them as Quirites, implying his soldiers had been returned to civilian life.
Etymology
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
Michiel Arnoud Cor de Vaan (; born 1973) is a Dutch linguist and Indo-Europeanist. He taught comparative Indo-European linguistics, historical linguistics and dialectology at the University of Leiden until 2014, when he moved to the University ...
, since the ''quirīs'' and ''Quirīnus'' are connected with
Sabellic
The Osco-Umbrian, Sabellic or Sabellian languages are an extinct group of Italic languages, the Indo-European languages that were spoken in central and southern Italy by the Osco-Umbrians before being replaced by Latin, as the power of ancient Rom ...
immigrants into Rome in ancient legends, it may be a loanword. Ancient etymologies derived the term from the
Sabine
The Sabines (, , , ; ) were an Italic people who lived in the central Apennine Mountains (see Sabina) of the ancient Italian Peninsula, also inhabiting Latium north of the Anio before the founding of Rome.
The Sabines divided int ...
word for "spear", or from the Sabine capitol of
Cures, after the Sabine people were assimilated early in Roman history.
The etymology ''*ko-wir-'', then *''co-uiri-um'', 'assembly of the men', has been proposed by some scholars, although de Vaan notes that it "is not credible phonetically and not very compelling semantically".
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
Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (), to the (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I.
Roman law also den ...
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.
The English word ''cry'' comes from French ''crier'', from Latin ''quirītāre'', meaning 'to raise a plaintive cry, a public outcry'. According to
Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Virgil and Cicero). He is sometimes call ...
, it originally meant 'to implore the aid of the ''Quirītes'' or Roman citizens' (''quiritare dicitur is qui Quiritum fidem clamans implorat'').
See also
*
Quirinus
In Roman mythology and Roman religion, religion, Quirinus ( , ) 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.
Name
...
*
Mars Quirinus
References
*
*
Society of ancient Rome
{{ancientRome-stub