Editing Janus (section)

== Rites ==
The rites concerning Janus were numerous. Owing to the versatile and far reaching character of his basic function marking all beginnings and transitions, his presence was ubiquitous and fragmented. Apart from the rites solemnizing the beginning of the new year and of every month, there were the special times of the year which marked the beginning and closing of the military season, in March and October respectively. These included the rite of the ''arma movēre'' on 1 March and that of the ''arma condĕre'' at the end of the month performed by the [[Salii]], and the ''Tigillum Sororium'' on 1 October. Janus Quirinus was closely associated with the anniversaries of the dedications of the temples of Mars on 1 June (a date that corresponded with the festival of [[Cardea|Carna]], a deity associated with Janus: see below) and of that of Quirinus on 29 June (which was the last day of the month in the pre-Julian calendar). These important rites are discussed in detail below.

Any rite or religious act whatsoever required the invocation of Janus first, with a corresponding invocation to [[Vesta (mythology)|Vesta]] at the end (''Janus primus'' and ''Vesta extrema''). Instances are to be found in the ''Carmen Saliare'', the formula of the [[devotio]],<ref>Livy VIII 9, 6</ref> the lustration of the fields and the sacrifice of the ''porca praecidanea'',<ref>Cato ''De Agri Cultura'' 141 and 143.</ref> the ''Acta'' of the [[Arval Brethren]].<ref>''Acta Fratrum Arvalium'' ed. Henze p. CCXIV and 144 ff.</ref>

Although Janus had no [[flamen]], he was closely associated with the [[rex sacrorum]] who performed his sacrifices and took part in most of his rites: the ''rex'' held the first place in the [[ordo sacerdotum]], hierarchy of priests.<ref>Some scholars opine that the rex was Janus's priest, e.g. M. Renard "Aspects anciens de Jaanus et de Junon" in ''Revue belge de philologie et d' histoire'' '''31''' 1. 1953 p. 8. G. Dumézil disagrees as he considers the rex also and even more directly associated with Jupiter.</ref> The flamen of [[Portunus (mythology)|Portunus]] performed the ritual greasing of the spear of the god Quirinus on 17 August, day of the [[Portunalia]], on the same date that the temple of Janus in the [[Forum Holitorium]] had been consecrated by consul [[Gaius Duilius]] in 260 BC.<ref>Portunus seems to be a god closely related to Janus, if with a specifically restricted area of competence, in that he presides over doorways and harbours and shares with Janus his two symbols, the key and the stick: Scholiasta Veronensis ''Aen.'' V 241: "god of harbours and patron of doors". See also section below.</ref>

=== Beginning of the year ===
The winter solstice was thought to occur on 25 December. On 1 January was [[New Year's Day]]: the day was consecrated to Janus since it was the first of the new year and of the month (kalends) of Janus: the ''feria'' had an augural character as Romans believed the beginning of anything was an [[omen]] for the whole. Thus on that day it was customary to exchange cheerful words of good wishes.<ref>Ovid ''Fasti'' I 178–182.</ref> For the same reason everybody devoted a short time to his usual business,<ref>Ovid above 166–170.</ref> exchanged dates, figs and honey as a token of well wishing and made gifts of coins called ''strenae''.<ref>Ovid above 187–190; Pliny ''Naturalis Historia'' XXIII 3, 13; Martial VIII 33; XIII 27.</ref> Cakes made of spelt (''far'') and salt were offered to the god and burnt on the altar.<ref>Ovid ''Fasti'' I 127-8.</ref><ref>L. Schmitz in W. Smith ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' s.v. Ianus II p. 550-552 London 1890.</ref> Ovid states that in most ancient times there were no animal sacrifices and gods were propitiated with offerings of spelt and pure salt.<ref>Ovid ''Fasti'' I 337-8.</ref> This ''{{lang|la|libum}}'' was named ''{{lang|la|ianual}}'' and it was probably correspondent to the ''summanal'' offered the day before the Summer solstice to god [[Summanus]], which however was sweet being made with flour, honey and milk.
[[File:Ianus ianuarius.jpg|thumb|The month of January is named after Janus.]] 
Shortly afterwards, on 9 January, on the ''{{lang|la|feria}}'' of the [[Agonium]] of January, the [[rex sacrorum]] offered the sacrifice of a ram to Janus.<ref>Ovid above 334.</ref>

=== Beginning of the month ===
At the kalends of each month, the {{lang|la|rex sacrorum}} and the pontifex minor offered a sacrifice to Janus in the curia Calabra, while the regina offered a sow or a she lamb to Juno.<ref>Macrobius ''Saturnalia'' I 15, 19.</ref>

=== Beginning of the day ===
Morning belonged to Janus: men started their daily activities and business. Horace calls him ''Matutine Pater'', morning father.<ref>Horace ''Sermones'' II 6, 20–23:"Morning Father or if you prefer being called in this (other) way, Janus, Thou with whom men start business and works, do open my poem".</ref> G. Dumézil believes this custom is at the origin of the learned interpretations of Janus as a solar deity.<ref>G. Dumézil, ''La religion romaine archaïque'' (Paris, 1974), part II chapt. 3.</ref>

=== Space ===
Janus was also involved in spatial transitions, presiding over home doors, city gates and boundaries. Numerous toponyms of places located at the boundary between the territory of two communities, especially Etrurians and Latins or Umbrians, are named after the god.<ref>[[Giano dell'Umbria]], [[Torgiano]] near Perugia, [[Iano]] near Volterra.</ref> The most notable instance is the [[Ianiculum]] which marked the access to [[Etruria]] from Rome.<ref>Paulus ex Festus s.v. P. L.</ref> Since borders often coincided with rivers and the border of Rome (and other Italics) with Etruria was the [[Tiber]], it has been argued that its crossing had a religious connotation; it would have involved a set of rigorous apotropaic practices and a devotional attitude. Janus would have originally regulated particularly the crossing of this sacred river through the [[pons sublicius]].<ref>L. Adams Holland above.</ref>
The name of the Iāniculum is not derived by that of the god, but from the abstract noun ''iānus, -us''.<ref>P. Grimal above p. 40-43.</ref><ref>Paulus s. v. above : "Ianiculum dictum, quod per eum Romanus populus primitus transierit in agrum Etruscum". "It is named Janiculum because originally the Romans passed on to the Etruscan territory (ager) through it".</ref> Adams Holland opines it would have been originally the name of a small bridge connecting the [[Tiber Island]] (on which she supposes the first shrine of Janus stood) with the right bank of the river.<ref>L. Adams Holland above p. 231-3.</ref>
However Janus was the protector of doors, gates and roadways in general, as is shown by his two symbols, the key and the staff.<ref>Macrobius ''Saturnalia'' I 9 7: "But among us the name of Janus shows that he was the patron of all doorways, which is similar to Θυραίω. Indeed he is represented also with a key and a stick, as if he were the protector of all doorways and the ruler of all roadways"; Ovid ''Fasti'' I 254-5.</ref> The key too was a sign that the traveller had come to a harbour or ford in peace to exchange his goods.<ref>J. Gagé, "Sur les origines du culte de Janus", ''Revue de l'histoire des religions'' 195/1 (1979), p. 8.</ref>

The rite of the bride's oiling the posts of the door of her new home with wolf fat at her arrival, though not mentioning Janus explicitly, is a rite of passage related to the ''ianua''.

=== Rites of the Salii ===
The rites of the Salii marked the springtime beginning of the war season in March and its closing in October. The structure of the [[Patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] [[Sodales|sodalitas]], made up by the two groups of the Salii Palatini, who were consecrated to Mars and whose institution was traditionally ascribed to Numa (with headquarter on the Palatine), and the Salii Collini or Agonales, consecrated to Quirinus and whose foundation was ascribed to Tullus Hostilius, (with headquarter on the Quirinal) reflects in its division the dialectic symbolic role they played in the rites of the opening and closing of the military season.<ref>The two groups were of twelve people each. They stood under the patronage of the gods of the archaic triad: cf. Servius ''Aen.'' VIII 663 "… the Salii who are under the tutelage of Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus".</ref> So does the legend of their foundation itself: the peace-loving king Numa instituted the Salii of [[Mars Gradivus]], foreseeing the future wars of the Romans<ref>Livy I 20, 4.</ref> while the warmonger king Tullus, in a battle during a longstanding war with the Sabines, swore to found a second group of Salii should he obtain victory.<ref>Dionysius Halicarnasseus III 32, 4.</ref>

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.<ref>Tullus's vow included beside the institution of the Salii also that of the [[Saturnalia]] (perhaps along with the [[Consualia]]) and of the [[Opalia]] after the storing of the harvest: all festivals related to peace, fertility and plenty.</ref> 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''.<ref>A passage of Statius ''Silvae'' V 2, 128, to be found in a poem in honour of his friend Crispinus, a Salius Collinus, suggests clearly the difference between the functions of the arms of Quirinus and those of Mars (and Minerva): "Mars and the virgin Actea shew the points ... the arms of Quirinus ... shields born from the clouds and arms untouched by slaughter": the arms of Quirinus were peaceful.</ref>

This dialectic was reflected materially by the location of the temple of Mars outside the [[pomerium]] and of the temple of Quirinus inside it.<ref>Servius ''Aen.'' I 292 "Thence in the City there two temples of his, of Quirinus within the Urbs, as if protector but peaceful, another on the ''Via Appia'' outside the ''Urbs'' near the gate, as if warrior, or ''gradivus'' ": the gate is the ''Porta Capena''; VI 860: "Quirinus is the Mars that presides over peace and is worshipped inside the city: in fact the Mars of war has his temple outside it". Regardless of the actual date of their foundation their location is archaic: for Quirinus cf. Paulus p. 303 L and for Mars Festus p. 204 L.</ref> The annual dialectic rhythm of the rites of the Salii of March and October was also further reflected within the rites of each month and spatially by their repeated crossing of the pomerial line. The rites of March started on the first with the ceremony of the ''ancilia movere'', developed through the month on the 14th with [[Equirria]] in the [[Campus Martius]] (and the [[Mamuralia|rite of Mamurius Veturius]] marking the expulsion of the old year), the 17th with the [[Agonium Martiale]], the 19th with the [[Quinquatrus]] in the [[Comitium]] (which correspond symmetrically with the [[Armilustrium]] of 19 October), on the 23rd with the [[Tubilustrium]] and they terminated at the end of the month with the rite of the ''ancilia condere''. Only after this month-long set of rites was accomplished was it [[Glossary of ancient Roman religion#fas|fas]] to undertake military campaigns.<ref>Suetonius ''Othon'' VIII 5: "He started the expedition before it was ritually correct, without any care for religious praescriptions, but with ''ancilia''  ''moved'' and not yet ''stored'' "; Ovid ''Fasti'' III 395f.: "The arms move the fight: the fight is alien to the grooms, when they have been stored the omen shall be more propitious".</ref>

While Janus sometimes is named ''belliger''<ref>[[Lucan]] ''Pharsalia'' I 61–62: "Pax missa per orbem/ ferrea belligeri compescat limina Iani". Statius ''Silvae'' II 3,12: "belligerum Iani nemus".</ref> and sometimes ''pacificus''<ref>Martial VIII 66, 11–12.</ref> in accord with his general function of beginner, he is mentioned as ''Janus Quirinus'' in relation to the closing of the rites of March at the end of the month together with [[Pax (mythology)|Pax]], [[Salus]] and [[Concordia (mythology)|Concordia]]:<ref>Ovid ''Fasti'' III 879–882: "... Janus is to be worshipped together with mild Concord and Safety of the Roman people and the altar of Peace".</ref> This feature is a reflection of the aspect of Janus Quirinus which stresses the ''quirinal'' function of bringing peace back and the hope of soldiers for a victorious return.<ref>Servius ''Aen.'' I 291: "It is a better reason that those who go to war desire the come back."</ref><ref>The ancients give an armed and even military definition of Quirinus: Macrobius I 9 16; Ovid II 475-8; Plutarch ''Romulus '' 29, 1; ''Quaestiones Romanae'' 27; Paulus 43, 1 L. But while his armed character of is not in contradiction with the nature of Quirinus as well as of the gods of the third function, a definitely and exclusively martial character is unacceptable and looks to be a later development, due to the assimilation of Romulus with Quirinus. The legend of Romulus' later life had strong military connotations, which changed the original character of Quirinus. According to Dumezil the interpretation Quirnus-Romulus came about via a different route, i. e. the [[divine twins]] myth, of which [[Romulus and Remus]] are an instance. Their myth is representative and belongs to the category of the gods of the third function, as e.g. the [[Dioskuri]], the [[Ashvins]]. Whatever the original nature of the Sabine Quirinus, in Rome this god did not originally have a military function.</ref>

As the rites of the Salii mimic the passage from peace to war and back to peace by moving between the two poles of Mars and Quirinus in the monthly cycle of March, so they do in the ceremonies of October, the ''Equus October'' ("[[October Horse]]") taking place on the Campus Martius<ref>Festus p. 190 L.</ref> the ''Armilustrium'', purification of the arms, on the [[Aventine Hill|Aventine]],<ref>Varro ''Lingua Latina'' VI 22; V 153; Plutarch ''Quaestiones Romanae'' 23.</ref> and the [[Tubilustrium]] on the 23rd. Other correspondences may be found in the dates of the founding of the temples of Mars on 1 June and of that of Quirinus on 29 June, in the pre-Julian calendar the last day of the month, implying that the opening of the month belonged to Mars and the closing to Quirinus.

The reciprocity of the two gods' situations is subsumed under the role of opener and closer played by Janus as Ovid states: "''Why are you hidden in peace, and open when the arms have been moved?''"<ref>''Fasti'' I 277.</ref> Another analogous correspondence may be found in the festival of the [[Quirinalia]] of February, last month of the ancient calendar of Numa.<ref>C. Koch above; R. Schilling above p. 124 n. 2.</ref> The rite of the opening and closure of the Janus Quirinus would thus reflect the idea of the reintegration of the ''miles'' into civil society, i.e. the community of the ''quirites'', by playing a lustral role similar to the ''Tigillum Sororium'' and the ''{{lang|la|porta triumphalis}}'' located at the south of the Campus Martius. In Augustan ideology this symbolic meaning was strongly emphasised.<ref>Thus Ovid may conclude his passage devoted to Janus with the words "Janus, do make peace and those who administer it (Augustus and Germanicus) eternal." in ''Fasti'' I 287. Horace too mentions that Augustus closed the ''Ianum Quirini'' in ''Carmina'' IV 15, 9 and calls "Janus ... protector of the peace" in ''Epistulae'' II 1, 255.</ref>

=== Tigillum Sororium ===
{{Main|Tigillum Sororium}}
This rite was supposed to commemorate the expiation of the murder of his own sister by Marcus Horatius.<ref>Livy I 26. Dionysius of Halicarnassus III 22.</ref> The young hero with his head veiled had to pass under a beam spanning an alley. The rite was repeated every year on 1 October.<ref>CIL I 2nd p. 214: "Fasti Aru. ad Kal. Oct. : Tigillo Soror(io) ad compitum Acili"</ref> The ''tigillum'' consisted of a beam on two posts.<ref>Festus s. v. Sororium tigillum p. 380 L.: "Horatius duo tigilla tertio superiecto ... subit".</ref> It was kept in good condition at public expenses to the time of Livy. Behind the ''tigillum'', on opposite sides of the alley, stood the two altars of Janus Curiatius and Juno Sororia. Its location was on the vicus leading to the [[Carinae]], perhaps at the point of the crossing of the [[pomerium]].<ref>Livy I 26, 6 and 11 repeats twice the formula ''{{lang|la|vel intra pomerium vel extra pomerium}}''.</ref> The rite and myth have been interpreted by Dumezil as a purification and desacralization of the soldiers from the religious pollution contracted in war, and a freeing of the warrior from ''furor'', wrath, as dangerous in the city as it is necessary on campaign.<ref>G. Dumezil, ''Myths romains I. Les Horaces et les Curiaces'' (Paris, 1942), p. 112.</ref>

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.<ref>M. Renard "Aspects anciens de Janus et de Junon" above p. 9 and ff. citing E. L. Shields, ''Juno'' (Northampton, Mass., 1926), p. 53.</ref> 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.<ref>Martianus Capella ''De Nuptiis'' II 149.</ref> Paul the Deacon states that the ''sororium tigillum'' was a ''sacer'' (sacred) place in honour of Juno.<ref>Paulus s.v. Sororium tigillum p. 399 L.</ref> 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.

Carna was a nymph of the sacred ''lucus'' of Helernus, made goddess of hinges by Janus with the name of [[Cardea]], and had the power of protecting and purifying thresholds and the doorposts.<ref>A. Grenier, ''Les religions étrusque et romaine'' (Paris, 1948), pp. 115 and 131</ref><ref>R. Pettazzoni, "Carna", ''Studi Etruschi'' 14 (1940), p. 163ff.</ref><ref>Ovid ''Fasti'' VI 155</ref> This would be a further element in explaining the role of Juno in the ''Tigillum''. It was also customary for new brides to oil the posts of the door of their new homes with wolf fat. In the myth of Janus and Carna (see section below) Carna had the habit when pursued by a young man of asking him out of shyness for a hidden recess and thereupon fleeing: but two headed Janus saw her hiding in a crag under some rocks. Thence the analogy with the rite of the Tigillum Sororium would be apparent: both in the myth and in the rite Janus, the god of motion, goes through a low passage to attain Carna as Horatius passes under the ''tigillum'' to obtain his purification and the restitution to the condition of citizen eligible for civil activities, including family life. The purification is then the prerequisite for fertility. The custom of attaining lustration and fertility by passing under a gap in rocks, a hole in the soil or a hollow in a tree is widespread.<ref>Roscher, ''Lexicon'', s.v. Ianus col. 21–22.</ref>

The veiled head of Horatius could also be explained as an apotropaic device if one considers the ''{{lang|la|tigillum}}'' the ''{{lang|la|iugum}}'' of Juno, the feminine principle of fecundity. Renard concludes that the rite is under the tutelage of both Janus and Juno, being a rite of transition under the patronage of Janus and of desacralisation and fertility under that of Juno: through it the ''{{lang|la|iuvenes}}'' coming back from campaign were restituted to their fertile condition of husbands and peasants. Janus is often associated with fecundity in myths, representing the masculine principle of motion, while Juno represents the complementary feminine principle of fertility: the action of the first would allow the manifestation of the other.<ref>Cf. Augustin ''De Civitate Dei'' VII 2 and 3.</ref>