Editing Quirinus (section)

==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' 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' 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' 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' 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}}