01-25-2018, 04:01 PM
To-day is the second day before the Ides of January (ANTE DIEM II IDVS IANVARII), marked C., DIES COMITIALIS, also known as the Eve of the Ides (PRIDIE IDVS IANVARII). In modern terms, it is the twelfth of January.
On account of the lengthy note yesterday on the Carmentalia and Juturnalia, I omitted the historical note, which I will now treat of.
''[Imp. Caesar Augustus put an end to all wars, for the third time] since Romulus, and closed the gate of Janus, [when he was consul for the fifth time, with Sex. Appuleius]. Augustus . . . Tiberius Caesar''
Regrettably nothing can be done with the most fragmentary portion, but the majority of the note can be reconstructed.
The year of the consulship of Augustus and Appuleius is 29 B.C.E., the year of the City 725 – two years after the Battle of Actium and a year after the capture of Alexandria and the final defeat of Antony.
In the thirteenth chapter of the ''Res Gestae Divi Augusti'' we find the following passage:
''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.''
The reference is to the doors of the ancient temple of Janus Geminus (the twin, from his two heads), a small shrine which held an archaic statue of the god and which was located between the Forum Romanum and the Forum Julium. It was said to be dedicated by Numa Pompilius.
The statue itself may is sometimes alleged to have borne a staff and a key (Ovid Fasti I 99-100):
He, holding in his right hand his staff and in his left the key, to me these accents uttered from his front mouth: “Dismiss thy fear, thy answer take, laborious singer of the days, and mark my words.''
However, Pliny, in the sixteenth chapter of the twenty-fourth book of the Natural History, gives us the following:
''Various circumstances prove, that the art of making statues was commonly practised in Italy at an early period. The statue in the Cattle Market is said to have been consecrated to Hercules by Evander; it is called the triumphal Hercules, and, on the occasion of triumphal processions, is arrayed in triumphal vestments. And then besides, King Numa dedicated the statue of the two-faced Janus; a deity who is worshipped as presiding over both peace and war. The fingers, too, are so formed as to indicate three hundred and sixty-five days, or in other words, the year; thus denoting that he is the god of time and duration.''
Setting aside the controversy as to how the statue indicated this number (and some MSS give three-hundred and fifty-five, said to be the number of days of the year in Numa's day), these descriptions are evidently irreconcilable. It has been suggested that as Ovid wrote far earlier than Pliny, the statue may have been replaced, but evidently Pliny believed that the statue he saw was the original and it is hard to believe that Pliny would have blundered if it was a replacement.
I suspect that Ovid has been badly misconstrued, and was in fact, without any doubt referring to an apparition of the god that either appeared to him in his own house as he wrote, or as a literary conceit without the slightest reference to the statue of Janus. The full passage runs:
''But what god am I to say thou art, Janus of double-shape? for Greece hath no divinity like thee. The reason, too, unfold why alone of all the heavenly one thou doest see both back and front. While thus I mused, the tablets in my hand, methought the house grew brighter than it was before. Then of a sudden sacred Janus, in his two-headed shape, offered his double visage to my wondering eyes. A terror seized me, I felt my hair stiffen with fear, and with a sudden chill my bosom froze.''
Plutarch's Life of Numa Pompilius also gives us an account of the peace that prevailed in his reign (from Chapters 19 and 20):
''The first month, January, is so named from Janus. And I think that March, which is named from Mars, was moved by Numa from its place at the head of the months because he wished in every case that martial influences should yield precedence to civil and political. For this Janus, in remote antiquity, whether he was a demi-god or a king, was a patron of civil and social order, and is said to have lifted human life out of its bestial and savage state. For this reason he is represented with two faces, implying that he brought men's lives out of one sort and condition into another.
He also has a temple at Rome with double doors, which they call the gates of war; for the temple 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 Caesar it was closed, after he had overthrown Antony; and before that, when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls, it was closed a short time; then war broke out again at once, and it was opened. During the reign of Numa, however, it was not seen open for a single day, but remained shut for the space of forty-three years together, so complete and universal was the cessation of war. For not only was the Roman people softened and charmed by the righteousness and mildness of their king, but also the cities round about, as if some cooling breeze or salubrious wind were wafted upon them from Rome, began to experience a change of temper, and all of them were filled with a longing desire to have good government, to be at peace, to till the earth, to rear their children in quiet, and to worship the gods. Festivals and feasts, hospitalities and friendly converse between people who visited one another promiscuously and without fear, — these prevailed throughout Italy, while honour and justice flowed into all hearts from the wisdom of Numa, as from a fountain, and the calm serenity of his spirit diffused itself abroad.''
The year of the consulship of T. Manlius and M. Atilius was 235 B.C.E., the year of the City 519, and the gates were closed after Manlius put down a rising in Sardinia, which had been seized from the Carthaginians while they were distracted by a rising of their mercenaries (240-238 B.C.E., of the City 514-516).
The three closures by Augustus were a) after the defeat of Anthony, b) in the year of the consulship of Augustus and Silanus, 25 B.C.E, of the City 729 (?); which places it near the middle of the Cantabrian Wars (??? -- source definitely needed), c) unknown.
There exist several excellent literary descriptions of the custom of opening the doors of the temple of Janus in war, and what it signifies, as in the seventh book of Vergil's Aeneid, Lines 601-615:
On account of the lengthy note yesterday on the Carmentalia and Juturnalia, I omitted the historical note, which I will now treat of.
''[Imp. Caesar Augustus put an end to all wars, for the third time] since Romulus, and closed the gate of Janus, [when he was consul for the fifth time, with Sex. Appuleius]. Augustus . . . Tiberius Caesar''
Regrettably nothing can be done with the most fragmentary portion, but the majority of the note can be reconstructed.
The year of the consulship of Augustus and Appuleius is 29 B.C.E., the year of the City 725 – two years after the Battle of Actium and a year after the capture of Alexandria and the final defeat of Antony.
In the thirteenth chapter of the ''Res Gestae Divi Augusti'' we find the following passage:
''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.''
The reference is to the doors of the ancient temple of Janus Geminus (the twin, from his two heads), a small shrine which held an archaic statue of the god and which was located between the Forum Romanum and the Forum Julium. It was said to be dedicated by Numa Pompilius.
The statue itself may is sometimes alleged to have borne a staff and a key (Ovid Fasti I 99-100):
He, holding in his right hand his staff and in his left the key, to me these accents uttered from his front mouth: “Dismiss thy fear, thy answer take, laborious singer of the days, and mark my words.''
However, Pliny, in the sixteenth chapter of the twenty-fourth book of the Natural History, gives us the following:
''Various circumstances prove, that the art of making statues was commonly practised in Italy at an early period. The statue in the Cattle Market is said to have been consecrated to Hercules by Evander; it is called the triumphal Hercules, and, on the occasion of triumphal processions, is arrayed in triumphal vestments. And then besides, King Numa dedicated the statue of the two-faced Janus; a deity who is worshipped as presiding over both peace and war. The fingers, too, are so formed as to indicate three hundred and sixty-five days, or in other words, the year; thus denoting that he is the god of time and duration.''
Setting aside the controversy as to how the statue indicated this number (and some MSS give three-hundred and fifty-five, said to be the number of days of the year in Numa's day), these descriptions are evidently irreconcilable. It has been suggested that as Ovid wrote far earlier than Pliny, the statue may have been replaced, but evidently Pliny believed that the statue he saw was the original and it is hard to believe that Pliny would have blundered if it was a replacement.
I suspect that Ovid has been badly misconstrued, and was in fact, without any doubt referring to an apparition of the god that either appeared to him in his own house as he wrote, or as a literary conceit without the slightest reference to the statue of Janus. The full passage runs:
''But what god am I to say thou art, Janus of double-shape? for Greece hath no divinity like thee. The reason, too, unfold why alone of all the heavenly one thou doest see both back and front. While thus I mused, the tablets in my hand, methought the house grew brighter than it was before. Then of a sudden sacred Janus, in his two-headed shape, offered his double visage to my wondering eyes. A terror seized me, I felt my hair stiffen with fear, and with a sudden chill my bosom froze.''
Plutarch's Life of Numa Pompilius also gives us an account of the peace that prevailed in his reign (from Chapters 19 and 20):
''The first month, January, is so named from Janus. And I think that March, which is named from Mars, was moved by Numa from its place at the head of the months because he wished in every case that martial influences should yield precedence to civil and political. For this Janus, in remote antiquity, whether he was a demi-god or a king, was a patron of civil and social order, and is said to have lifted human life out of its bestial and savage state. For this reason he is represented with two faces, implying that he brought men's lives out of one sort and condition into another.
He also has a temple at Rome with double doors, which they call the gates of war; for the temple 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 Caesar it was closed, after he had overthrown Antony; and before that, when Marcus Atilius and Titus Manlius were consuls, it was closed a short time; then war broke out again at once, and it was opened. During the reign of Numa, however, it was not seen open for a single day, but remained shut for the space of forty-three years together, so complete and universal was the cessation of war. For not only was the Roman people softened and charmed by the righteousness and mildness of their king, but also the cities round about, as if some cooling breeze or salubrious wind were wafted upon them from Rome, began to experience a change of temper, and all of them were filled with a longing desire to have good government, to be at peace, to till the earth, to rear their children in quiet, and to worship the gods. Festivals and feasts, hospitalities and friendly converse between people who visited one another promiscuously and without fear, — these prevailed throughout Italy, while honour and justice flowed into all hearts from the wisdom of Numa, as from a fountain, and the calm serenity of his spirit diffused itself abroad.''
The year of the consulship of T. Manlius and M. Atilius was 235 B.C.E., the year of the City 519, and the gates were closed after Manlius put down a rising in Sardinia, which had been seized from the Carthaginians while they were distracted by a rising of their mercenaries (240-238 B.C.E., of the City 514-516).
The three closures by Augustus were a) after the defeat of Anthony, b) in the year of the consulship of Augustus and Silanus, 25 B.C.E, of the City 729 (?); which places it near the middle of the Cantabrian Wars (??? -- source definitely needed), c) unknown.
There exist several excellent literary descriptions of the custom of opening the doors of the temple of Janus in war, and what it signifies, as in the seventh book of Vergil's Aeneid, Lines 601-615:
''There was a sacred custom in Latium, Land of the West, which the Alban Cities continuously observed, and Rome, supreme in all the world, observes today when Romans first stir Mars to engage battle, alike if they prepare to launch war's miseries with might and main on Getae, Hyrcanians, or Arabs, or to journey to India, in the track of dawn, and to bid the Parthians hand our standards back. There are twin Gates of War, for by that name men call them; and they are hallowed by men's awe and the dread presence of heartless Mars. A hundred bars of bronze, and iron's tough, everlasting strength, close them, and Janus, never moving from that threshold, is their guard. When the senators have irrevocably decided for battle, the consul himself, a figure conspicuous in Quirine toga of State and Gabine cincture, unbolts these gates, and their hinge-posts groan; it is he who calls the fighting forth, then the rest of their manhood follows, and the bronze horns, in hoarse assent, add their breath''.
See also lines 293-296 of the first book:
''The terrible iron-constricted Gates of War shall shut; and safe within them shall stay the godless and ghastly Lust of Blood, propped on his pitiless piled armory, and still roaring from gory mouth, but held fast by a hundred chains of bronze knotted behind his back.''
Thus according to Vergil, War is held within the gates of the temple of Janus and is released when the doors are opened, and confined when they are shut.
However, see Ovid's Fasti, Book I Line 277 et seq.:
“But why hide in time of peace and open thy gates when men take arms?“ Without delay he rendered me the reason that I sought. “My fate, unbarred, stands open wide, that when the people hath gone forth to war, the road for their return may be open too. I bar the doors in time of peace, lest peace depart, and under Caesar’s star I shall be long shut up.” He spoke, and lifting up his eyes that saw in opposite directions, he surveyed all that the whole world held. Peace reigned, and on the Rhine already, Germanicus, thy triumph had been won, when the river yielded up her waters to thy slaves.O Janus, let the peace and the ministers of peace endure for aye, and grant that its author may never forgot his handiwork.''
According to Ovid, the closed gates of the temple of Janus retain Peace, not War and prevent it from departing from Rome, as opposed to ''letting slip the dogs of War''.
Patrick J. Gray
'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''
From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
'' Now. Close your eyes. It's but a short step to the boat, a short pull across the river.''
''And then?''
''And then, I promise you, you'll dream a different story altogether''
From ''I, Claudius'', by J. Pulman after R. Graves.
