Volume 1

Clavis calendaria; or, a compendious analysis of the calendar: illustrated with ecclesiastical, historical, and classical anecdotes / By John Brady.

  • Brady, John, -1814.
Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Clavis calendaria; or, a compendious analysis of the calendar: illustrated with ecclesiastical, historical, and classical anecdotes / By John Brady. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    5 7 only from his great reputed judgment in all con- cerns from the knowledge he was thought to pos- sess of things past, but more especially for his pre- sumed power of foresight. Janus was supposed to preside over the gates of heaven ; and, from this circumstance, he was usually depicted with a key in his right hand. Hence every door among the Romans had the name of Jcinua, and the month being named Januarius is thought by some authors to have ex- pressly marked that period as a door or opening to a new sera, or a renewal of time, over which he presided, as well as over peace and war. When Julius Caesar made his alteration of the Calen- dar, however, he caused J uno to supersede Janus as the tutelar Deity of this month. The image of Janus, in some instances, bore two faces turned from each other ; the one, old, representing his experience, in allusion to time past; the other, young, and typical of his look- ing forward into time yet to come. In other cases he was pourtrayed with four faces, as em- blems of the four seasons, over which he was adjudged to have controul : — and he was still further distinguished, as the Deity of the year, by being depicted seated in the centre of twelve altars, in token of Numa’s division of the months, with figures on his hands to the extent of the number of days to which the year was aug- mented by that sovereign. Numa, who was alike eminent for piety, mode- ration, and his endeavours to inspire the Roman