ANCIENT ROMANS KNEW even less about the prehistoric origins of their religion than we do, since we have knowledge from centuries of archaeology. Latin writers of the Classical era tried to connecttheir own native Italian gods to the prestigious gods of ancient Greece, with their complex genealogies and deep cultural and artistic associations. So Jupiter is Zeus, Juno is Hera, Minerva isAthena, Bacchus is Dionysus, and so on.

But some Roman gods had no Greek counterpart. Foremost among these is Janus, god of doorways, beginnings and endings.

The first month of our calendar is called January in his honor. Roman artists represented Janus with two faces: one looking right (forward into the future), the other looking left (backward, intothe past). Beginning in the third century BCE, this striking, powerful image appears on Roman coins.

Ancient coins depicting Janus or similar figures ("janiform heads") include common types, as well as some of the most spectacular and rare.

Cast Bronze

Around 240 BCE the head of Janus appears on the massive, crudely cast bronze as of the Roman Republic. Initially these weighed about 285 grams; by 212 BCE they had fallen, through successivereductions, to about 66 grams. On Harlan Berk's list of the "100 greatest ancient coins" (Berk, 60), this type--the aes grave as--ranks as #34. High-grade examples typically sell for around $3,500USD and up.

Mad Commodus

Possibly struck for New Year's Day 187, a magnificent bronze medallion of Commodus, the demented ruler played by Joaquin Phoenix in the film Gladiator (2000)[4], represents the emperor himself asone face of Janus. A cataloguer for Numismatica Ars Classica observes that:

Janiform Heads
Not every head with two faces is Janus.

Numismatists use the term "janiform" as a catch-all for heads with two faces. Janus was always bearded, but we see coins with two beardless faces on the same head, and even heads with one male andone female face.

The Greek island of Tenedos issued such coins for centuries. A magnificent early didrachm (ca. 490-480 BCE) in archaic style sold for $180,000 in a 2012 auction[. A tetradrachm in Hellenisticstyle (ca. 180 BCE) brought over $24,000 in a 2008 European sale

In 2007, this exquisitely bizarre piece sold for over $74,000

To read the complete article, see:
CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: Janus, God of January(www.coinweek.com/ancient-coins/coinweek-ancient-coin-series-janus-god-of-january/)