JULY 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 7

Janus of Rome
In the pantheon of Roman mythology
there is a god that is not
borrowed from the Greeks. The
Romans were brilliant people
who did not like reinventing the
wheel. Therefore, they shamelessly
took the inventions and
discoveries of others and made
them their own. Many times, they
improved on the original models
and our world is still receiving
the benefits. Today, we can still
see their aqueducts, roads, concrete,
and even bound books. In
their religious mythology most
all their gods are Greek gods
who have
been renamed.
For example,
Zeus is the
chief god in
Greek myths,
but in the
Latin myths
his name is
Jupiter. Same
god, different
name.
Janus, however,
is pure
Roman. Janus
is a god with
two faces. He
has eyes in
the back of his
head as well as the front. Romans
had a concept that beginnings
and endings were important
components of the same
event. Janus was the god that
started war and ended peace.
Janus also started peace and
ended war. Apollo governed the
war itself, but Janus started and
ended it. Janus is also concerned
with journeys as they begin and
end. When one journey is ended,
another starts. Therefore,
Janus guards the doorways and
passageways of a building as
these are important starting and
ending points of a journey. We
get our word “janitor” from this
function of Janus’ mission. The
most important of all the duties
of Janus was guarding the
gateways of the city of Rome.
The very security of the Roman
people was
in the hands
of Janus as
he was the
gatekeeper of
the city. With
his unique
ability to see
from multiple
points of
view, he could
maintain the
gates and
protect the
people.
On September
4, 476
AD, Janus no
longer kept
the gates. The Romans squandered
their birthrights with
riotous overspending and political
corruption. They could no
longer manage their far-flung
affairs in an efficient manner,
so mismanagement became the
norm. They no longer superintended
their borders, and they allowed
their enemies to come in and serve in
their once mighty legions. They quite
literally trained foreigners in their
military tactics and technology. They
did this because the average Roman
no longer had the intrinsic loyalty
and patriotism to perform their civic
responsibilities in an organized society.
The new segment of their society
called Christians was extremely
disgusted by the collective sexual
depravity that injured children and
vulnerable women. They also saw the
reliance on slave labor to be peculiarly
depraved.
Despite Rome’s glorious history
with her stupendous accomplishments,
the society could not stand. In
a geographical area that went from
the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates
River, the once mighty empire crumbled.
Edward Gibbon’s book concerning
the rise and decline of Rome
indicated that the most surprising
characteristic of the fall was that
the Romans did not know it was
in decline!
On September 4, 476 AD, Janus
failed to protect the Roman
people and their once dominant
gates. “Barbarians” entered the
phenomenal city. They marveled
at the architecture and engineering
involved in creating this
dazzling metropolis. The “Barbarians”
could neither read nor
write, but they could fight as
their one-time masters trained
them.
Upon further reflection, I wonder
if Janus did do his duty.
Perhaps he wasn’t the negligent
deity the now conquered Romans
thought he was. Conceivably, he
may have executed his obligations
perfectly. Janus, with his
powers of multiple viewpoints,
apparently believed that the
citizens of Rome were no longer
worthy of the sacrifices that
the centurion gatekeepers were
asked to make on their behalf.
The centurions enforced the
greatest written law code ever
produced up until that time - the
“Corpus Juris Civilis.” The once
illustrious force that patrolled
the roads of the empire and the
gates of Rome herself now protected
an ungrateful and dishonorable
population. The Romans
exhausted the honor, loyalty, and
Congratulations to
Alan Helfman
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Lifetime
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FOR OVER 36 YEARS
courage of the centurions who
had sworn an oath to protect
them. Janus didn’t need four
eyes to see this detestable behavior.
On September 4, 476 AD, Rome
fell. The journey was over. The
ungrateful and despicable Romans
had new masters as any
conquered people does.
On September 4, 476 AD, Janus
started a new journey on history’s
timeline. It was one in which
the new masters were illiterate
barbarians with tribal names like
Goths, Vandals, Celts, Angles,
Saxons, Franks, and Visigoths.
The new journey had a name:
The Dark Ages.
HELFMAN’S
RIVER OAKS CHRYSLER
JEEP • DODGE • RAM • CHRYSLER • FORD
FIAT • ALFA ROMEO • MASERATI
82 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 83