Quirinus was originally most likely a Sabine god. The Sabines had a settlement near the site of what was to become Rome, and erected an altar to Quirinus on the "Collis Quirinalis", the "Quirinal Hill", one of the "Seven Hills of Rome". When the Romans settled there, they absorbed the cult of Quirinus into their early belief system — previous to direct Greek influence — and he was said to be the deified Romulus. 