The Roman Gates of War Open for 700 years DOCUMENTARY

At the very heart of Rome lay the infamous gates of Janus, whose ritual opening heralded the outbreak of war and whose closing celebrated the return of peace. Legend tells that during Rome's incredible rise to power, they lay open for nearly 700 years from King Numa to Emperor Augustus with but one exception. These gates of war have long captured my imagination as a piece of history that seems plucked right out of some fantasy setting, yet they were very much real. Or were they? Today, let's dive deeper into this fascinating structure and the mystery of its patron deity, Janus. I've derived a lot of inspiration and research for these documentaries from my growing library. However, it's tough to get through all my books, and I often find myself looking for ways to sate my curiosity in more on-the-fly ways. Thankfully, our sponsor Blinkist has a solution. 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For many, his name will seem quite foreign, as we rarely hear of this god mentioned in discussions of the Roman mythology. And yet, we've all spoken his name without knowing it. After all, it is his name that serves as the root for the month we call January. The enshrinement of the god's name at the start of the year should tell us something about Janus' importance in the Roman world. Scholars investigating the matter have actually found Janus depicted on the oldest Roman coins and have noted his presence at the top of the oldest list of gods. In fact, in these early writings, he is often referred to as the Divum Deus, an ancient Latin translation which means the god's god. Yet as historians have attempted to peer into the origins of this eldest of deities, they are met with only deeper mysteries. As best we can tell, Janus had quite deep native roots and was even said to have been the one to have welcomed Saturn to Italian shores. He was venerated in several towns of the Tiber Valley and had an early cult following in Rome with a prominent location on the Janiculian hill to the west of the city named after him. Unfortunately, we know little of its beliefs or practices. This uncertainty was actually shared by many ancient authors who also speculated on the nature of his origins. Yet while they puzzled over such matters, they also invoked him incessantly. Janus was called upon at the start of their prayers, received the first portion of their sacrifices, had the first month of the year named after him, and had the first day of the year dedicated to him with a feast day. At the same time, the arcane deity enjoyed no special priesthood and had few temples outside of Rome. This peculiar situation led the Roman scholar Louise Holland to aptly describe Janus' role in the Roman pantheon as being one of frustratingly obscure prominence. It seems that Janus may have been so old that the Romans included him in their religious rituals simply as a deeply held habit without much of an understanding as to why. This confusion in turn led everyone, especially writers, philosophers, and cosmologists, to attempt to stitch together or even invent some coherent concept of Janus. The end result was a general coalescing of several key functions attributed to the god. Janus Pater, the god of beginnings, Janus Patulchius, the god that opened doors, and Janus Clusivus, the god that closed doors. Owing to his multi-purpose nature, he is commonly depicted with two and sometimes four faces. In one hand, he carries a key to show his dominion over passages, and in the other, a staff to show his authority and role as a guide. So now that we have at least a passing understanding of Janus, we can turn to our discussion of the gates of Janus. These were a part of early structures erected in his name. Back in the days of the Roman monarchy, several such buildings were said to have existed. One shrine, as we have mentioned, was located atop the Janiculum Hill, overlooking Rome, and would have been used by augurs to observe the flight of birds and for We were told that several other small shrines existed in the area. According to some, the most prominent of these was built by the legendary king Numa Pompilius, who is often used to explain much of Rome's religious heritage. Yet whatever its origins, multiple sources state that this temple of Janus was located on a street named the Argillentum, which led from the Forum to the northeastern areas of the city. It was a small, rectangular shrine which sheltered an ancient bronze statue of Janus, whose odd finger placement some believed represented the 355 days of the early Roman year. A pair of arched doorways on opposite sides of the building allowed passage through the structure. They were barred and flanked by columns. All in all, it was a quite unique building that was differentiated architecturally from your typical Greco-Roman temples. Another point of distinction was the practice we alluded to at the start of the video, that these gates of Janus also functioned as the gates of war. Let's now address this part of the story. As should be expected, the origin of this practice is as poorly understood by us as it was by the Romans. Some sources claim that its origins date back to the early days of Rome's kings. This should not be wholly unexpected, as in those years, the small Latin community took many precautions to ensure that they had the god's backing in any armed conflict. For instance, declarations of war involved an elaborate process of walking into enemy territory, declaring your grievances to passerbys, waiting 33 days for demands to be met, and then, if they went unanswered, returning to enemy land to announce war with the throwing of a blood-tipped spear in the presence of three adults. Likewise, battle itself could not be given without first seeking approval of the sacred chickens, which were carted around with the army wherever it went. It should be no surprise, then, that the superstitious Romans also developed a practice involving Janus, the god of gods. Ancient authors in the late Republic like Horace, Virgil, and Ovid offered different perspectives on the ritual. There does seem to be a consensus that the gates of Janus stood open in war and closed in peace, but the explanation for why this was the case differs. Some say that opening the gates in times of war would allow Janus to protect the people, and that they could only therefore be closed when the danger had passed and peace was restored. Another take on this idea was that when war was declared, ancient armies would ritually walk through the shrine to augment their virtue as warriors, and when peace was concluded, they would walk back through the shrine in the opposite direction to shed their furor and pollution of blood guilt. In yet another interpretation, the shrine and the power of Janus was actually meant to imprison the dark fury of war, kind of like some evil Ganon from Zelda, which would at times break loose upon the world to wreak havoc. Virgil has a quite evocative passage to this effect. Quote, Whatever the case, the myth was clearly open to interpretation. This proved useful to later Roman rulers who could leverage the story for their own agendas. Emperor Augustus, for instance, had finally taken control of Rome after a long series of civil wars and wished to depict himself as a stable ruler that would finally return peace to a battered land. Co-opting the old legend of the gates of Janus would be the perfect vehicle for this message. As a demonstration of this strategy in action, he writes boastfully in his autobiography, quote, 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. But while I was the leading citizen, the Senate resolved that it should be shut on three occasions. The prior occasions he's referring to are recorded by Livy as taking place during the reign of Numa Pompilius around 700 BC and the consulship of Titus Manlius in 235 BC, several years after the end of the First Punic War. It's quite the sensational claim to make that these gates of war had remained open for almost 700 years from Numa to Augustus with but one interruption, and I can see why the emperor was keen to play up this story. But if we are to believe that the function of the gates served a ritual purpose in ancient war-making akin to the spear-throwing for declaring war or the augury of chickens when giving battle, it would seem likely that the gates were opened and closed on a far more frequent basis. That is, if this was ever something that really happened and not some convenient legend. Whatever the case, Augustus seized the opportunity and made a grand ceremony of closing the gates on more occasions than ever before. According to Orosius, the first instance took place in January of 29 BC, following Augustus' triumph over Mark Antony at Actium, which finally concluded the civil wars. The second instance took place in 25 BC, following a successful campaign against the Cantabrians in Iberia. And the third instance took place in 1 BC, when the empire again stilled. I'll now read from Orosius, quote, From that time onward they remained bolted in complete stillness for almost twelve years. Rust even gathered upon them and it was not until Augustus was a very old man that they were forced to be opened because of a revolt of the Athenians and the commotion raised by the Dacians. During this period, when the gates of Janus were closed, the emperor strove, by the maintenance of peace, to nourish and to enlarge the state which he had acquired by war, establishing many laws to inculcate in men the habit of discipline through a reverence that was willingly given. If true, this passage speaks to the very selective nature of what Rome called peace and when a leader like Augustus would choose to ceremonially open or close the temple of Janus. For example here, Orosius would have us believe that the vaunted gates of war lay absolutely undisturbed despite the raging conflicts of the Illyrian revolt or the Germanic wars. Yet it's perhaps the ambiguity of the ritual that made it so attractive to emperors who could use it as a convenient piece of propaganda whenever needed. Ancient historians for instance tell us that the gates of Janus would next be closed by Nero in 66 AD to celebrate his general Corbulo's defeat of the Parthians, with commemorative coins even being minted to mark the occasion. Vespasian would have his own closing ceremony in 75 AD and next we hear of this happening again in 241 AD when Gordian III was noted to have reopened them. From this point on, the practice seems to have run its course and largely faded away. The temple of Janus Geminis itself was apparently moved a few times and found itself overshadowed by new structures that now dominated the heart of Rome. In fact, to this day, archaeologists have yet to find physical evidence of its remains in the forum. I hope you've enjoyed this deep dive into a very niche but deeply fascinating aspect of history. To me, it's a great window into the inner workings of the Roman world and has proved endlessly inspiring for my own fantasy world I'm building for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing more of this sort of content. A huge thanks to the sponsors for funding the channel and to the researchers, writers, and artists who made this episode possible. Be sure to like and subscribe for more content, and check out these other related videos. See you in the next one.