Kenny has closed the gates of ‘Janus’, but must watch his back

JANUARY, from Janus, the Roman double-faced god facing in opposite directions, is here.

The patron of doorways, corridors and places of transition, Janus’s temple had enormous significance in ancient Rome. At midnight last night, many of us threw open our doors to let out the old and welcome in the new. Superstition? Perhaps, but also ancient religious custom. Nothing was more symbolically potent in ancient Rome than the opening and closing of the doors of the Temple of Janus.

Only in peace were the gates of the temple shut. In war, they were opened. The great Augustus (meaning ‘revered’), formerly Octavian, closed the gates an unprecedented three times. The first time he did so was after the defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra. Rome was saved from the despotic tyranny of the former and the foreign domination of the latter.