God of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. Uniquely Roman deity with no Greek equivalent. Depicted with two faces looking to past and future.
Janus has no Greek twin, and Romans knew it. He is the god of going in and going out: doors, gates, the first of the year, the first word of a prayer. He is shown with two faces, one toward what has happened and one toward what has not. January bears his name. The gates of his shrine in the Forum, the Janus Geminus, stood open in war and closed in peace, which happened rarely enough to be worth recording.
First invoked
Varro and the pontifical tradition put him at the beginning of ceremony. Before Jupiter is named, Janus is named, because nothing starts without a threshold. Kings in legend, including Numa, are said to have kept his cult as part of teaching Romans how to begin things properly.
War and peace as a door
When the Senate wanted to say that Rome was at peace, it did not compose a hymn. It closed a gate. Janus is that kind of god: practical, architectural, and older in feel than the imported Olympian family, even when later writers tried to place him in a genealogy.
Origin Story
Janus is one of the oldest Roman gods, said to have no Greek counterpart. He presided over the beginning and end of conflicts, and hence war and peace. All ceremonies and rituals began with an invocation to Janus.
Primary Sources
Historical texts and references
“And ancient Janus, with his double face, and bunch of keys, the porter of the place.”
Worship & Cult
How Janus was venerated in ancient times
Sacred Temples
•Janus Geminus in the Forum, a double gate rather than a house with a statue
•Temple of Janus at the Forum Holitorium, vowed in the First Punic War
Festivals & Celebrations
Agonalia (9 January)Kalends of January
Worship Practices
Every proper prayer named Janus first. The Forum gates stood open in war and shut in peace. He is a hinge, not a personality cult: oil, wine, and incense at thresholds, and the first month of the year.
