IANUS
an arch or gate, intended for a passage way (Cic. de nat. deor. ii. 67:
Ianum . . . ab eundo. .. ex quo transitiones perviae iani ... nominantur),
sometimes surmounted with statues (Suet. Aug. 31:
Pompei quoque
statuam ... marmoreo Iano superposuit), of which there were many in
Rome (Suet. Dom. 13:
ianos arcusque.. . tantos ac tot exstruxit; Ov.
Fast. i. 257:
cum tot sis iani cur stas sacratus in uno). The word was
also used of one of the passage ways through a double gate (
Liv. ii. 49. 7:
infelici via dextro iano portae Carmentalis profecti ad Cremeram flumen
perveniunt). Of these iani in Rome one, Ianus Primus, is mentioned
only in one inscription (
CIL vi. 12816:
L. Aufidius L. l. Eperastus ab
Iano primo, cf. Comm. in hon. Momms. 642), and its site is unknown,
although often supposed to have been in the forum.
The second is the well-known Ianus medius which, wherever it occurs
in literature, designates the place in the forum where bankers and
speculators gathered for business (Cic. de off. ii. 87:
de collocanda
pecunia . .commodius a quibusdam optimis viris ad Ianum medium
sedentibus . . . disputatur; Phil. 6. 15:
L. Antonio a lano medio patrono;
7. 16:
patronus Iani medii;
CIL vi. 5845:
a Iano medio; 10027; Hor.
Sat.
ii. 3. 18:
postquam omnis res mea Ianum ad medium fracta est; and
without doubt Ov. Rem. Am. 56 :
qui puteal Ianumque timet celeresque
Kalendas torqueat hunc aeris mutua summa sui). The scholia on the
passage in Horace (Porphyr.:
hoc ideo qui omnes ad Ianum in basilica
consistebant; Acron:
Iani statuae tres erant; ad unam illarum solebant
convenire creditores et feneratores, alii ad reddendum, alii ad locandum
fenus. Ianum ad medium ideo, quoniam in Rostris simulacrum Iani
erat, ubi res pecuniariae agebantur per feneratores. Aliter: Ianus
medius locus dictus est prope basilicam Pauli ubi vasa aenea venundabantur; similarly Comm. Cruq.) seem to agree in placing the ianus
medius near the basilica Aemilia, although they confuse statues with
arches. With this position of the Ianus subsequent topographers have
agreed, although they differed as to which end of the basilica should be
understood.
A second passage in Horace (Ep. i. I. 53-54:
o cives cives quaerenda
pecunia primum est; virtus post nummos: haec Ianus summus ab imo
Prodocet) has complicated the matter. Summus and imus have been
brought into connection with medius, and in support of the theory of
three iani in the forum at different points, summus, medius and imus,
some scholars cite a passage in Livy (xli. 27:
forum porticibus tabernisque
claudendum et Ianos tres faciendos) which states that in the year 174 B.C.
the magistrates erected three iani in some colony, presumably in imitation
of conditions in the forum at Rome. No hint of any such connection
of summus and imus with medius is given by the scholiasts (Porphyr.:
ad ianos eos qui sunt in regione basilicae Pauli feneratores consistunt...
Unus enim illic ianus in summo alius in imo est quos haec inducit monere;
Acron:
duo Iani ante basilicam Pauli steterunt ubi locus erat faeneratorum. Ianus dicebatur locus in quo solebant convenire feneratores),
who agree, however, in placing the two iani in front of the basilica Aemilia,
as they did the medius. The Commentator Cruquii gives another explanation of
summus ab imo-hoc est omnes Romani a maximo ad minimum
qui ad Ianum conveniunt hoc prodocent, i.e. aperte dicunt.
There is still a third passage in Horace (
Ep. i. 20. I :
Vortumnum
Ianumque liber spectare videris, scilicet ut prostes Sosiorum pumice
Mundus) on which the scholiast (Porphyr.) remarks:
Vortumnus ...
in vico Turario sacellum habuit; Ianus quoque similiter vicus est ab Iano
gemino sic appellatus qui in eo arcum habet sibi consecratum (cf. Acron
and Comm. Cruq., which, however, do not mention any vicus). This is
the only mention of a vicus Ianus, and is evidently due to confusion and
an error of interpretation on the part of the scholiast, but nevertheless
a theory has been constructed on this basis which identifies this vicus
Ianus with a supposed street in front of the basilica Aemilia, on the
north side of the area of the forum, corresponding with the continuation
of the Sacra via on the south side, and spans this with three arches,
Ianus summus medius and imus, from west to east (Bentley, Hor. Ep. i.
I. 54; Lanciani,
BC 1899, 99; LR 253-254;
BPW 1913, 981; Thdd.
176, who identifies Ianus medius with Ianus Geminus; and many edd.
of Horace). If there were any sufficient evidence for a vicus Ianus, Ianus
summus ab imo might easily be explained as referring to this street, but
it is altogether probable that the phrase is a poetical expression meaning
' from one end of the Forum to the other' (Jord.), and cannot be taken as
authority for a Ianus summus and a Ianus imus.
It is probable that at the beginning of the Augustan period, Ianus
medius was a small single arch, near the basilica Aemilia, but it is not
possible to decide whether medius refers to its position in the forum or
with respect to other arches. There may have been other iani in the
forum, but there are no certain references to them. Those who suppose
that such iani stood where other streets entered the forum, look for
evidence to the two cases of possible iani on the Rostra relief (see
ROSTRA),
the remains of an arch of later date across the vicus Iugarius, the presence
of such a Ianus near the statue of Vortumnus (see above) in the vicus
Tuscus, where traces of an arch are alleged to have been found (
BPW
1903, 1117), and some indications in the scholia. The inconsistencies
and errors of the scholia may be due to the changes of the later empire.
(
Jord. i. 2. 214-218; Richter, 106-107; Th6d. 175-176;
DS iii. 615;
Burchett, Janus in Roman Life and Cult, Menasha,
Wis. 1918, 42-47).