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The next addition made to the city was the Sabine town, which occupied the Quirinal and part of the Capitoline hills. The name of this town most probably was Qui'rium, and from it the Roman people received the name Quirites. The two cities were united on terms of equality, and the double-faced Ja'nus stamped on the earliest Roman coins was probably a symbol of the double state.
It was so called from the Quirites, who formed a constituent part of the Roman people, and whose name was subsequently given to the entire. Butchered to make a Roman holiday. Byron. The inferiority of the Romans to the Greeks in intellectual acquirements, was no where more conspicuous than in their public amusements.
It was customary for the fecialis to carry in his hand a javelin pointed with steel, or burnt at the end and dipped in blood, to the confines of the enemy's country, and in presence of at least three grown-up persons, to say, "Forasmuch as the states of the ancient Latins, and the ancient Latin people, have offended against the Roman people, the Quirites, forasmuch as the Roman people, the Quirites, have ordered that there should be war with the ancient Latins, and the senate of the Roman people, the Quirites, have given their opinion, consented, and voted that war should be made with the ancient Latins, on this account I and the Roman people declare and make war on the states of the ancient Latins, and on the ancient Latin people."
After that many inconsiderate expressions and actions of the younger patricians were put down to the temper of Cæso alone, owing to the suspicion with which he was regarded: still the law was resisted. Also Aulus Verginius frequently remarked to the people: "Are you now sensible, Quirites that you can not at the same time have Cæso as a fellow-citizen, and the law which you desire?
He had treated them as his children; no commander had ever been more careful of his soldiers' lives; when addressing the army he had called them always "commilitones," "comrades," "brothers-in-arms." The familiar word was now no longer heard from him. "You say well, quirites," he answered; "you have labored hard, and you have suffered much; you desire your discharge you have it.
Vestra admurmuratio facit, Quirites, ut agnoscere videamini qui haec fecerint: ego autem neminem nomino." Pro Lege Manilia, 13. Varro mentions curious instances of the change in country manners. The farmer used to shave only once a week, etc. M. Ter. Varronis Reliquiae, ed. Alexander Riese, pp. 139, 140.
What would happen to-day in view of a dreadful calamity surpassing almost everything which Rome had undergone in the course of eight centuries? Whoever calls the quirites to arms, thought Vinicius, will overthrow Nero undoubtedly, and clothe himself in purple.
But conquered kings and queens are permitted to live. Caesar's son will not be exhibited to the Quirites in the triumphal procession. Rhodon says that there would be an insurrection if I appeared in the Forum. If I go there again, it certainly will not be in Octavianus's train. I am not suited for that kind of ignominy.
Vinicius, who had not been in the city for a long time, looked with a certain curiosity on that swarm of people and on that Forum Romanum, which both dominated the sea of the world and was flooded by it, so that Petronius, who divined the thoughts of his companion, called it "the nest of the Quirites without the Quirites."
But conquered kings and queens are permitted to live. Caesar's son will not be exhibited to the Quirites in the triumphal procession. Rhodon says that there would be an insurrection if I appeared in the Forum. If I go there again, it certainly will not be in Octavianus's train. I am not suited for that kind of ignominy.
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