Gates of Janus, The : An Analysis of Serial Murder by England's Most Hated Criminal

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The emperor Augustus wrested the legend from oblivion. In his autobiography, he tells: It was the will of our ancestors that the gateway of Janus Quirinus should be shut when victories had secured peace by land and sea throughout the whole empire of the Roman people; from the foundation of the city to my birth, tradition records that it was shut only twice [by Numa and Manlius], but while I was the leading citizen the Senate resolved that it should be shut on three occasions. note [Augustus, My achievements 13; tr. P. Brunt and J. Moore.] The paradox of the pacifist king serving Mars and passage to war and of the warmonger king serving Quirinus to achieve peace under the expected conditions highlights the dialectic nature of the cooperation between the two gods, inherent to their own function. [166] Because of the working of the talismans of the sovereign god they guaranteed alternatively force and victory, fecundity and plenty. It is noteworthy that the two groups of Salii did not split their competences so that one group only opened the way to war and the other to peace: they worked together both at the opening and the conclusion of the military season, marking the passage of power from one god to the other. Thus the Salii enacted the dialectic nature present in the warring and peaceful aspect of the Roman people, particularly the iuvenes. [167] a b c d Muller, Valentine (October 1943). "The Shrine of Janus Geminus in Rome". American Journal of Archaeology. 47 (4): 437–440. doi: 10.2307/499831. JSTOR 499831. S2CID 245265095. Castagnoli, Ferdinando. 1988. "Gli iani del Foro Romano. Ianus arco quadrifonte?." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma XCII: 11-16. The temple in the Argiletum consisted of two gates; the cult statue was between them. It was a very ancient statue; the author Pliny the Elder mentions it as proof that the sculptor's art existed in Italy in the earliest times. note [Pliny the Elder, Natural history 36.58.] The god was portrayed with two bearded heads. The fingers of his hands were placed in strange positions, which Pliny interpreted as an indication of the number 355, which he thought was a reference to the number of days of the oldest Roman calendar. This may be true, but it is, of course, pure speculation.

The compound Ianus Quirinus is to be found also in the rite of the spolia opima, a lex regia ascribed to Numa, which prescribed that the third rank spoils of a king or chief killed in battle, those conquered by a common soldier, be consecrated to Ianus Quirinus. [114] Schilling believes the reference of this rite to Ianus Quirinus to embody the original prophetic interpretation, which ascribes to this deity the last and conclusive spoils of Roman history. [115] Ποπάνων (Popanon, Libo?) [ edit ] Janus frequently symbolized change and transitions such as the progress of past to future, from one condition to another, from one vision to another, and young people's growth to adulthood. He represented time because he could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other. [43] Hence, Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as at marriages, deaths and other beginnings. He represented the middle ground between barbarism and civilization, rural and urban space, youth and adulthood. Having jurisdiction over beginnings Janus had an intrinsic association with omens and auspices. [44] Position in the pantheon [ edit ]

The rite took place on the kalends of October, the month marking the end of the yearly military activity in ancient Rome. Scholars have offered different interpretations of the meaning of Janus Curiatius and Juno Sororia. The association of the two gods with this rite is not immediately clear. It is however apparent that they exchanged their epithets, as Curiatius is connected to (Juno) Curitis and Sororia to (Janus) Geminus. [185] Renard thinks that while Janus is the god of motion and transitions he is not concerned directly with purification, while the arch is more associated with Juno. This fact would be testified by the epithet Sororium, shared by the tigillum and the goddess. Juno Curitis is also the protectress of the iuvenes, the young soldiers. [186] Paul the Deacon states that the sororium tigillum was a sacer (sacred) place in honour of Juno. [187] Another element linking Juno with Janus is her identification with Carna, suggested by the festival of this deity on the kalends (day of Juno) of June, the month of Juno. From other archaeological documents though it has become clear that the Etruscans had another god who was double-faced like Janus: Culśanś, of which there is a bronze statuette from Cortona (now at Cortona Museum). While Janus is a bearded adult, Culśans is an unbearded youth, making his identification with Hermes look possible. [245] However, his name is also connected with the Etruscan word for doors and gates. [246] The historian Eutropius informs us that Gordian III opened the doors in 241. note [Eutropius, Short History 9.2.] We are forced to accept that the gates had been closed for almost 170 years. If the doors had been open all the time and a second-century emperor had closed them, he would have minted coins, and archaeologists would have found these. But they have not been discovered, and this forces us to accept that the gates were closed, even though emperors like Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus were well-known warriors.

they vary widely in dubious points and are all tentative, nonetheless one can identify with certainty some epithets:The relationship between Janus and Juno is defined by the closeness of the notions of beginning and transition and the functions of conception and delivery. The reader is referred to the above sections Cult epithets and Tigillum Sororium of this article and the corresponding section of article Juno.