Seven Mounts excluded the Quirinal, and that afterwards in the Servian Rome, while the three first regions corresponded to the former Palatine city, a fourth region was formed out of the Quirinal along with the neighbouring Viminal. Thus, too, we discover an explanation of the reason why the strong outwork of the Subura was constructed beyond the city wall in the valley between the Esquiline and Quirinal; it was at that point, in fact, that the two territories came into contact, and the Palatine Romans, after having taken possession of the low ground, were under the necessity of constructing a stronghold for protection against those of the Quirinal.
Lastly, even the name has not been lost by which the men of the Quirinal distinguished themselves from their Palatine neighbours. As the Palatine city took the name of "the Seven Mounts," its citizens called themselves the "Mount-men" (montani), and the term "mount," while applied to the other heights belonging to the city, was above all associated with the Palatine, so the Quirinal height as well as the Viminal belonging to it, although they were not lower, but on the contrary somewhat higher than the former, never in the strict use of the language received any other name than "hill" (collis): in ritual records, indeed, the Quirinal was not unfrequently designated as the "Hill," without further addition. In like manner, the gate leading from this height was usually called the "Hill-gate" (Porta Collina); the priests of Mars settled there those "of the Hill" (Salii Collini), in contrast to those of the Palatine (Salii Palatini), and the fourth Servian region formed out of this district the Hill-region (tribus Collina).[1] The name of Romans, primarily
- ↑ Although the name "Hill of Quirinus" was afterwards ordinarily used to designate the height where the Hill-Romans had their abode, we need not on that account regard the name "Quirites" as having been originally reserved for the burgesses on the Quirinal. For the earliest indications point, as regards them, to the name Collini; while it is indisputably certain that the name Quirites denoted from the first, as well as subsequently, simply the full burgess, and had no connection with the distinction between montani and collini (comp. chap. v. infra). In fact, Mars Quirinus, the spear-bearing god of Death, was originally worshipped as well on the Palatine as on the Quirinal; the oldest inscriptions found at what was atterwards called the Temple of Quirinus designate this divinity simply as Mars, but at a later period, for the sake of distinction, the god of the Mount-Romans more especially was called Mars, the god of the Hill-Romans more especially Quirinus.
When the Quirinal is called Collis Agonalis, "Hill of Sacrifice," it is so designated only as the centre of the religious rites of the Hill-Romans.
