Quirites
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Quirites was the earliest name of the burgesses of Ancient Rome. The singular is quiris.
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 is full Roman citizenship. Subsequently the term lost the military associations due to the original conception of the people as a body of warriors, and was applied (sometimes in a deprecatory sense, cf. Tac. Ann. ~. 42) to the Romans in domestic affairs, Romani being reserved for foreign affairs.
The Oxford English Dictionary cites Varro in identifying this name as the source of the word cry.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Template:Oed
