Temple of Janus (Roman Forum)


The Janus stood in the Roman Forum near the Basilica Aemilia, along the Argiletum. It had gates at both ends, and inside was a statue of Janus, the two-faced god of boundaries and beginnings. Its doors were known as the "Gates of Janus", and were closed in times of peace and opened in times of war. There are many theories about its original purpose; some say that it was a bridge over the Velabrum, and some say it functioned as a gate to the Capitoline. This article includes the origins, legends, and modern remains of the Temple of Janus in the Roman Forum.

Origins

According to Livy 1.19 the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, decided to distract the early, warlike Romans from their violent ways by instilling in them awe and reverence. His projects included promoting religion, certain priesthoods, and the building of temples as a distraction with the beneficial effect of imbuing spirituality. The Janus in the Roman Forum, although not a temple was claimed to be Numa's most famous architectural project.
In the early stages of the city of Rome, the inhabitants lived in separate walled villas. The Janus was the gate from the Forum to the rest of the Rome as originally the Forum was the courtyard of the king's villa.

Ancient descriptions

, in Life of King Numa, wrote:
also has a temple at Rome with double doors, which they call the gates of war; for it always stands open in time of war, but is closed when peace has come. The latter was a difficult matter, and it rarely happened, since the realm was always engaged in some war, as its increasing size brought it into collision with the barbarous nations which encompassed it round about. But in the time of Augustus it was closed, after he had overthrown Mark Antony; and before that, when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls, it was closed for a short time; then war broke out again at once, and it was opened.

The gates of Janus

The gates of the Janus were the most important part of the structure. Their opening and closing was the reason for its existence. The gates played a large part in Roman religion as it concerned war, and was something that military leaders had to take seriously to have the support of the people. There are many historical sources which confirm that the gates were closed during times of peace and open during times of war. Each of those sources presents different reasons for the openings and closings: Ennius and Virgil said the gates held Discord and Fury inside the temple during times of peace, some interpretations of Horace imply that peace was imprisoned and guarded by the closed gates, while others say Janus himself was locked inside during times of peace. No matter which interpretation is used, it was seen as a point of pride for all the leaders of Rome to have the gates closed during their rule.

The gates in use

During Numa's reign, the Gates of Janus were closed as Rome was at peace. The next king, Tullus Hostilius, opened the Gates of Janus when he went to war with Alba Longa. The Gates of Janus remained open for the next 400 years until after the First Punic War when T. Manlius Torquatus closed the Gates of Janus in 235 BC. This closure lasted about eight years. War with the Gauls in Northern Italy forced the Gates of Janus to reopen. They did not close again until 29 BC, following the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra.
The Res Gestae Divi Augusti, a first-person account of the life of Augustus, claims:
The Janus Quirinus, which our ancestors wished to be closed whenever peace had been secured by victories throughout the Roman empire by land and sea, was recorded to have been closed, before I was born, twice altogether since the foundation of the city, but the senate decreed that it should be closed on three occasions while I was princeps.
From Cassius Dio 51.20 and 53.27 we are able to date the first two closures in Augustus's reign to 29 and 25 BC respectively. The exact date of the third closure remains a matter of scholarly debate. The only ancient author to date it was Orosius, who associates the event with the birth of Christ, traditionally ' assigned to December 1 BC. However, modern scholars almost universally reject Orosius because Roman armies were campaigning in Germany and/or the Far East at this time. Inez Scott Ryberg and Gaius Stern date the third closure more plausibly to 13 BC based on the joint return of Augustus and Agrippa to Rome after pacifying the provinces. Sir Ronald Syme dated the closure to 7 BC, to coincide with the triumph of Tiberius and his second consulship, the events of which year are lost in a gap in the surviving manuscripts of Cassius Dio. Mario Torelli followed Orosius' date.
Later emperors also closed the Gates of the Janus to great fanfare. The most famous closures occurred under Nero and Vespasian. Nero minted a large series of coins with the Ara Pacis on the reverse to commemorate this event. Other emperors certainly closed and reopened the Gates of the Janus, but references in later and less thorough historians are fairly rare.
The Roman poet Virgil included in the Aeneid'' the opening of the Gates of the Janus to start war between the Trojans and the Latins.

Later historical contexts

The legends of Janus have been used for many purposes throughout history. 16th century Roman priests used them to justify the seat of Christianity being moved from Rome to Jerusalem and described the Vatican as the “Throne of Janus”. This was done to gain traction in Italy through the perceived support of the “god of beginnings”.
The story of the Gates of Janus was also used by British political and military leaders during the 19th and early 20th centuries. They portrayed the opening of the Gates as a part of the glory of war and used the legend to add honour to the wars over control of their empire.

Construction of the temple

There is very little remaining today from any of the reconstructions of the Janus. A small portion of the surviving brick structure can be found beside the ruins of the Basilica Aemilia, along the path of the Argiletum in the Roman Forum.
Despite very little of the structure remaining, a lot of information about the construction can be determined from other archeological evidence. There is evidence of many reconstructions from the building's depictions on coins. The various styles of architecture seen on those coins suggest rough dates for the reconstructions; both in the third and fourth centuries BCE. The style of arch shown on the coins minted under Nero suggest a rebuild during the fourth century BCE, and the artistic masonry shown also suggests work was done during the third century BCE. Accounts of the temple say it was made of bronze, but due to the depiction on the coins it is assumed that only the interior was sheathed in bronze, as the exterior is shown with Ashlar masonry.