Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

Quiris, a Roman citizen. In ancient Roman law it was the name by which a Roman called himself in a civil capacity, in contrast to the name Romanus, used in reference to his political and military capacity. The jus Quiritium in Roman law denoted the full body of rights for Roman citizenship.

It was an early name and was associated by ancient scholars with the Sabine element in Rome, the Sabine deity Quirinus, and the Quirina tribe. The word referred to citizens exclusively as civilians; it is said that Julius Caesar quelled a military mutiny by addressing the soldiers as “Quirites.”