DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44944#0336
28o IANUS QUADRIFRONS—IANUS QUADRIFRONS, TEMPLUM
and were surmounted by a grating. These gratings and the arches over
the doors supported an entablature of two members extending all around
the building, but there was no roof. The ancient bronze statue of the
two-faced god (bifrons, Verg. Aen. xii. 198; biformis, Ov. Fast. i. 89)
stood in the centre of the temple, which was no temple in the ordinary
sense but a passage {ianus). No traces of the structure have ever
been found, and there is no reference to it after Procopius. (For this
temple and the various theories about it, see, besides literature cited,
Jord. i. 2. 345-352 ; WR 103-106 ; Rosch. ii. 15-20 ; Thed. 71-74; Mitt.
1895, 172-178; 1921-22, 14-17; HC 134-136; Mel. 1908, 258-261 ;
Binder, Die Plebs, 1909, 61-72 ; Burchett, Janus in Roman Life and
Cult, Menasha, Wis. 1918, 37-44 ; CR 1918, 14-16; DR145-150; RE
Suppl. iii. 1178-1182; Suppl. iv. 506.)
Ianus Quadrifrons : the name ordinarily given to a four-way arch of
marble, which stands directly over the cloaca Maxima, and probably
marked the line of separation between the forum Boarium and the
Velabrum. It consists of four piers connected by quadripartite vaulting,
and is 12 metres square and 16 high. The arches themselves are 10.60
metres high and 5.70 wide. Round all four sides run two rows of niches
for statues, forty-eight in all, of which sixteen are unfinished. The
keystones of the arches were sculptured, and the figures of Minerva
and Roma are still visible on the north and east sides. The structure
is of late date, third or fourth century,1 and may perhaps be identified
with the arcus divi Constantini in Region XI (Not., om. Cur. ; DAP
2. vi. 261 ; Jord. i. 2. 471). For a detailed description of this arch, see
PAS ii. 80 ; Toeb. i. 131-135 ; ZA 258-261 ; for illustrations, Baumeister,
Denkm. iii. pl. Ixxx. 6, lxxxi. 8 ; Canina, Edifizi, iv. 253. Cf. ASA 119.
Hiilsen points out (Toeb. cit.) that the superstructure, which was
removed in 1827 as mediaeval, probably belonged to the attic (DuP.
pl. 23, fig. 38 and pp. 74, 75) ; and reconstructs it with a pyramid on top.
Ianus Quadrifrons, templum : erected by Domitian in the forum Transi-
torium (Mart. x. 28. 3-6 ; xi, 4. 5-6 ; Serv. Aen. vii. 607 ; Lydus, de
mens. iv. 1 ; Macrob. i. 9. 13), in which he placed the four-faced statue
that was said to have been brought to Rome from Falerii in 241 b.c.
The shrine was square with doors on each side, and the statue of the god
was said to look out on four forums (Mart. loc. cit.), i.e. the fora Roma·
num, Augustum, Pacis, Transitorium. It is not known whether this
four-faced statue from Falerii had anything to do with the Roman Janus
or not, or whether it had been housed in a shrine before Domitian’s
time. It was standing in the sixth century (Lydus, loc. cit. ; Jord. i. 2.
347, 450; WR 106 ; Rosch. ii. 25-26; Mem. L. 3. xi. 26-32; Burchett,
Janus in Roman Life and Cult, Menasha, Wis. 1918, 40).
1 It is attributed to a period a little before Diocletian in Zeitschr. f. Gesch. d. Archit.
viii. (1924), 74, as against the attribution to the second third of the fourth century in Toeb.
and were surmounted by a grating. These gratings and the arches over
the doors supported an entablature of two members extending all around
the building, but there was no roof. The ancient bronze statue of the
two-faced god (bifrons, Verg. Aen. xii. 198; biformis, Ov. Fast. i. 89)
stood in the centre of the temple, which was no temple in the ordinary
sense but a passage {ianus). No traces of the structure have ever
been found, and there is no reference to it after Procopius. (For this
temple and the various theories about it, see, besides literature cited,
Jord. i. 2. 345-352 ; WR 103-106 ; Rosch. ii. 15-20 ; Thed. 71-74; Mitt.
1895, 172-178; 1921-22, 14-17; HC 134-136; Mel. 1908, 258-261 ;
Binder, Die Plebs, 1909, 61-72 ; Burchett, Janus in Roman Life and
Cult, Menasha, Wis. 1918, 37-44 ; CR 1918, 14-16; DR145-150; RE
Suppl. iii. 1178-1182; Suppl. iv. 506.)
Ianus Quadrifrons : the name ordinarily given to a four-way arch of
marble, which stands directly over the cloaca Maxima, and probably
marked the line of separation between the forum Boarium and the
Velabrum. It consists of four piers connected by quadripartite vaulting,
and is 12 metres square and 16 high. The arches themselves are 10.60
metres high and 5.70 wide. Round all four sides run two rows of niches
for statues, forty-eight in all, of which sixteen are unfinished. The
keystones of the arches were sculptured, and the figures of Minerva
and Roma are still visible on the north and east sides. The structure
is of late date, third or fourth century,1 and may perhaps be identified
with the arcus divi Constantini in Region XI (Not., om. Cur. ; DAP
2. vi. 261 ; Jord. i. 2. 471). For a detailed description of this arch, see
PAS ii. 80 ; Toeb. i. 131-135 ; ZA 258-261 ; for illustrations, Baumeister,
Denkm. iii. pl. Ixxx. 6, lxxxi. 8 ; Canina, Edifizi, iv. 253. Cf. ASA 119.
Hiilsen points out (Toeb. cit.) that the superstructure, which was
removed in 1827 as mediaeval, probably belonged to the attic (DuP.
pl. 23, fig. 38 and pp. 74, 75) ; and reconstructs it with a pyramid on top.
Ianus Quadrifrons, templum : erected by Domitian in the forum Transi-
torium (Mart. x. 28. 3-6 ; xi, 4. 5-6 ; Serv. Aen. vii. 607 ; Lydus, de
mens. iv. 1 ; Macrob. i. 9. 13), in which he placed the four-faced statue
that was said to have been brought to Rome from Falerii in 241 b.c.
The shrine was square with doors on each side, and the statue of the god
was said to look out on four forums (Mart. loc. cit.), i.e. the fora Roma·
num, Augustum, Pacis, Transitorium. It is not known whether this
four-faced statue from Falerii had anything to do with the Roman Janus
or not, or whether it had been housed in a shrine before Domitian’s
time. It was standing in the sixth century (Lydus, loc. cit. ; Jord. i. 2.
347, 450; WR 106 ; Rosch. ii. 25-26; Mem. L. 3. xi. 26-32; Burchett,
Janus in Roman Life and Cult, Menasha, Wis. 1918, 40).
1 It is attributed to a period a little before Diocletian in Zeitschr. f. Gesch. d. Archit.
viii. (1924), 74, as against the attribution to the second third of the fourth century in Toeb.