{
  "id": "quirinus",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Quirinus",
  "summary": "Roman god of the archaic triad with Jupiter and Mars, served by his own flamen from Numa's reign and invoked as \"Janus Quirinus\" in the fetial formula; Ovid makes him the deified Romulus, given \"the shape divine of Quirinus clad in the trabea\", with Hersilia as his consort Hora. Livy tells the apotheosis without using the name.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "roman",
    "deities",
    "roman-state-cult",
    "apotheosis",
    "romulus"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "romulus"
    },
    {
      "rel": "child_of",
      "target": "mars"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "janus"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "jupiter"
    },
    {
      "rel": "attested_in",
      "target": "metamorphoses"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Who is Quirinus in Roman mythology?",
    "Is Quirinus the same as Romulus?",
    "How did Romulus become the god Quirinus?",
    "Who were the three flamens appointed by Numa?",
    "Why were Roman citizens called Quirites?",
    "Who is Hora in Ovid?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "Ovid narrates the apotheosis: Mars reminds Jupiter of his promise to lift Romulus \"to the blue of heaven\", Jupiter thunders his assent, Mars carries the king off the Palatine, \"His mortal flesh dissolved into thin air\" and \"A nobler shape was given him … the shape divine of Quirinus clad in the trabea\" (Met. 14.772).",
      "sources": [
        "ovid-metamorphoses"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "Livy tells the same disappearance — a thunderstorm at the Caprae Palus, the senators' claim that he was \"snatched away to heaven by a whirlwind\", the people hailing him \"a god, the son of a god\" — but never names him Quirinus, and records the rival rumour that the senators tore him to pieces (Livy 1.16.1–5).",
      "sources": [
        "livy-ab-urbe-condita-1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.92
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "Quirinus is one of the three gods with a flamen: Numa \"appointed a Flamen as perpetual priest to Jupiter … He appointed two additional Flamens, one for Mars, the other for Quirinus\" (Livy 1.20.2).",
      "sources": [
        "livy-ab-urbe-condita-1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "The fetial's declaration of war invokes \"Jupiter, and thou Janus Quirinus, and all ye heavenly gods\" (Livy 1.32.9) — the name is paired with Janus in the oldest formula Livy quotes.",
      "sources": [
        "livy-ab-urbe-condita-1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "Ovid gives Quirinus a consort: Juno sends Iris to Hersilia, Romulus's widow, to lead her to \"a grove that crowns the hill of Quirinus\"; a star carries her up, and Romulus \"changed her old time form and with the form her name. He called her Hora and let her become a goddess, now the mate of Quirinus\" (Met. 14.772).",
      "sources": [
        "ovid-metamorphoses"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "Ovid's closing prayer names the god's parentage and office: \"Father Quirinus — patron of Rome, and you Gradivus too — the sire of Quirinus the invincible\" (Met. 15.745); and the Romans who name the deified Aeneas Indiges are called \"the throng of the Quirini\" (Met. 14.581).",
      "sources": [
        "ovid-metamorphoses"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "Livy derives the citizens' name Quirites not from Quirinus but from the Sabine town: after the union with Tatius \"a concession was made to the Sabines in the new appellation of Quirites, from their old capital of Cures\" (Livy 1.13.5).",
      "sources": [
        "livy-ab-urbe-condita-1"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [
    "The identification Romulus = Quirinus is Ovid's in so many words; Livy narrates the ascension but keeps the name Quirinus for the cult (flamen, fetial formula).",
    "Quirinus has no Greek original; he is defined by Roman institutions — the third flamen, the Quirinal grove, the trabea.",
    "Livy's etymology of Quirites is Cures, not Quirinus."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "q": "How did Romulus become the god Quirinus?",
      "claim": "c1"
    },
    {
      "q": "Is Quirinus the same as Romulus?",
      "claim": "c2"
    },
    {
      "q": "Who were the three flamens appointed by Numa?",
      "claim": "c3"
    },
    {
      "q": "Who is Hora in Ovid?",
      "claim": "c5"
    },
    {
      "q": "Why were Roman citizens called Quirites?",
      "claim": "c7"
    }
  ],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "theoretical",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "Separates the cult god Livy knows (flamen, \"Janus Quirinus\") from the deified Romulus Ovid narrates, and points to the exact line where Ovid makes the identification and where Livy declines to.",
  "confidence": 0.92,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-03",
  "media": [],
  "x": {
    "myth": {
      "pantheon": "roman",
      "kind": "deity",
      "group": "other",
      "domains": [
        "the Roman people",
        "the state",
        "the deified Romulus"
      ],
      "symbols": [
        "trabea",
        "the Quirinal hill"
      ],
      "wikidata": "Q320333"
    }
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/quirinus",
  "api_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/api/k/quirinus.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Quirinus",
    "description": "Roman god of the archaic triad with Jupiter and Mars, served by his own flamen from Numa's reign and invoked as \"Janus Quirinus\" in the fetial formula; Ovid makes him the deified Romulus, given \"the shape divine of Quirinus clad in the trabea\", with Hersilia as his consort Hora. Livy tells the apotheosis without using the name.",
    "url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/quirinus",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-03",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Ovid, Metamorphoses — tr. Brookes More (1922), Perseus TEI edition",
        "url": "https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-latinLit/blob/master/data/phi0959/phi006/phi0959.phi006.perseus-eng3.xml"
      },
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, Books 1–10 — tr. Rev. Canon Roberts (1912), Perseus TEI edition",
        "url": "https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-latinLit/blob/master/data/phi0914/phi001/phi0914.phi001.perseus-eng3.xml"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "Quirinus"
  }
}