in Roman antiquity. In consequence of the agreement entered into by Romulus and Tatus king of the Sabines, Rome was to retain its name, taken from Romulus, and the people were to be called Quirites, from Cures, the principal town of the Sabines, a name used in all public addresses to the Roman people. Dion. Hal. says, that each particular citizen was to be called Romanus, and the collective body of them Quirites; yet it appears by this ancient form of words used at funerals, Ollus Quiris letho datus est, that each private citizen was also called Quiris.

The origin of the word Quirites, which was at first peculiar to the Sabines, and became, in Romulus's time, the general name of the inhabitants of Rome, has been much sought for; and the most probable account antiquity gives us of it, is this: The word Quiris, according to Plutarch and some others, signified in the Sabine language, both "a dart," and "a warlike deity armed with a dart." It is uncertain whether the god gave name to the dart, or the dart to the god. But be that as it will, this Quiris, or Quirinus, was either Mars or some other god of war; and the worship of Quiris continued in Rome all Romulus's reign: but after his death he was honoured with the name Quirinus, and took the place of the god Quiris.