in ancient Rome of the republican era, an appellation for the citizens, commonly used in official addresses (Populus Romanus Quiritium). The term is considered to be a derivative of co-viri-um (curia, “assembly of the men”); hence, quirites were originally members of curiae, the total number of which, in the process of the formation of the Roman state, made up the Roman citizenship (with exclusive rights to quirite law and quirite property).