Jānus

, the most ancient king who reigned in Italy. He was a native of The aly, and son of Apollo, according to some. He came to Italy, where he planted a colony and built a small town on the river Tiber, which he called Janiculum. Some authors make him son of Cœlus and Hecate; and others make him a native of Athens. During his reign, Saturn, driven from heaven by his son Jupiter, came to Italy, where Janus received him with much hospitality, and made him his colleague on the throne. Janus is represented with two faces, because he was acquainted with the past and the future; or, according to others, because he was taken for the sun, who opens the day at his rising, and shuts it at his setting. Some statues represented Janus with four heads. He sometimes appeared with a beard, and sometimes without. In religious ceremonies, his name was always invoked the first, because he presides over all gates and avenues, and it is through him only that prayers can reach the immortal gods. From that circumstance he often appears with a key in his right hand, and a rod in his left. Sometimes he holds the number of 300 in one hand, and in the other 65, to show that he presides over the year, of which the first month bears his name. Some suppose that he is the same as the world, or Cœlus; and from that circumstance they call him Eanus, ab eundo , because of the revolution of the heavens. He was called by different names, such as Consivius , a conserendo , because he presided over generation; Quirinus or Martial is , because he presided over war. He is also called Patuleius and Clausius , because the gates of his temples were open during the time of war, and shut in time of peace. He was chiefly worshipped among the Romans, where he had many temples, some erected to Janus Bifrons, others to Janus Quadrifrons. The temples of Quadrifrons were built with four equal sides, with a door and three windows on each side. The four doors were the emblems of the four seasons of the year, and the three windows in each of the sides the three months in each season, and, all together, the 12 months of the year. Janus was generally represented in statues as a young man. After death Janus was ranked among the gods, for his popularity and the civilization which he had introduced among the wild inhabitants of Italy. His temple, which was always open in times of war, was shut only three times during above 700 years, under Numa, 234 B.C., and under August us; and during that long period of time, the Romans were continually employed in war. Ovid , Fasti , bk. 1 , li. 65 , . — Virgil , Æneid , bk. 7 , li. 607 .— Varro , de Lingua Latina , bk. 1 .— Macrobius , Saturnalia , bk. 1 .――A street at Rome near the temple of Janus. It was generally frequented by usurers and money-brokers, and booksellers also kept their shops there. Horace , bk. 1 , ltr. 1 .