145 



forei. The janua also was frequently adorned and made sacred by a 

 statue of the god, looking both ways, — into the house, and into the 

 street ; and thus Janus appears, both by his name and functions, to be 

 especially a protector of gates and doors. 



Now it seems unreasonable to imagine that, this subordinate and 

 menial-looking function could have been the original attribute of the 

 god Janus, and the one to which he owed his existence ; for we find 

 that in the national traditions Janus was reckoned among the oldest 

 Italian deities. He was reputed to have been the oldest kuig of Latium, 

 and to have reigned there even before the arrival of Saturn, the iather 

 of Jupiter, whom he is said to have hospitably received. Nay, he was 

 identified with the very beginning of all things, primeval Chaos ; and by 

 other traditions, with Heaven. He was called Father Janus, and God of 

 Gods, in the ancient hymn of the Salian priests. He was said to have 

 dedicated temples to all the gods. To Ovid's poetical conception he 

 reveals himself in the following terms : — 



" Whatever anywhere your eyes survey, 

 The heaven, the earth, the skies, the houndless sea. 

 All these are subject made to my command, 

 And each is closed or opened by my hand. 

 The world's vast charge is placed in my controul, 

 With power to turn the pivots of the pole." 



Ovid^ Fasti I. 117, translation of John Taylor, of Liverpool. 



In accordance with these mighty powers, Janus wears the keys of 

 heaven, to which he thus has a very enviable right of admission, 

 acknowledged even by the gods themselves. 



M. Messala, the celebrated augur, says of Janus, that he makes (fingit) 

 and governs all things ; that he binds together and unites, by the 

 surrounding heaven, the heavy matter of which the earth is composed, 

 viz., earth and water, which are always pressing downward by their 

 weight, and the air and fire, which are for ever rising upwards.* 



Nor was this prominent position, occupied by Janus in the religious 

 system of ancient Latium, confined to theological speculations about his 

 attributes and powers. In the ceremonies and forms of public worship 

 he was equally honoured and distinguished. In all solemn adorations 

 of the gods, his name was mentioned first, even before that of Jupiter ; 

 and to him the first libations were offered in public as well as private 

 sacrifices. This appears most authentically in the ancient form of 

 prayer, by which a Roman consul, in devoting himself to death and the 

 infernal gods, called down destruction at the same time upon the hostile 

 army. Livy has preserved this prayer, undoubtedly from the most 



• Macrob. Sat I. fin. 

 20 



