 January dedicated to the God Janus. Let's talk about the month of January that is dedicated to the God that lived on the Geniculum Hill. Behind me is the Quadrophon's Arch known as the Arch of Janus. There were several arches dedicated to Janus. This one may not have been the one dedicated to the God himself but that's what it's known as. It dates the time of Constantine. Let's think about the beginning of the year and this God, this two-faced God from the Geniculum Hill, looks back at the year that transpired, looks forward to the future and the greatness of Rome. Let's take a look at the dates, the events, the religious calendars, the temples dedicated in the month of January and get familiar with just how frequent history happened in the city of Rome. We're gonna look at major events, religious festivals, important temple dedications, events that were particular, that were remembered by emperors and their family members, things like birthdays, death days, ascension days, succession days, and then a number of other important Romans including Cicero and Marius. So let's take a look at some important days that took place in the month of January. So first of all we've got this God, God of time, transition, passageways, doorways, and really it's all about for the Romans the beginning and end of conflict. And so you looked to Janus to favor you to ultimately have a successful outcome in war followed by peace. And when you had peace you closed the bronze doors of the temple of Janus in the forum basically at the end of the Argalitum Road. And how many times was that doorway, those doors of the temple closed? Just three times in Roman history were told up to the time of Augustus and we have a coin representation of here from Imperial Times. Janus was an important deity to the Romans and we ourselves are in January right now and we're glad that the previous year is done and we have new beginnings, we have new hopes, we just want to start off everything new and everything is possible. And that's how the Romans thought as well. So starting by 153 BC the consuls will go into office so the executive officers you make public boughs for the well-being of the state, you take the auspices, you get the approval of the gods, you get the approval of Jupiter, this is all taking place on the Capitoline Hill. You also have a number of festivals, Asclepius, so that's the god of healing from Epidaurus, from the Greek world, and then Bayovus who has a temple both on the Capitoline Hill but also on the Tiber Island. And this is a deity who basically is a kind of a combination of Jupiter and Apollo so it's like they're worshiping the let's say teenage young man version of Jupiter. That's who Bayovus is. And then we have some interesting moments to remember. The Julian calendar is basically ratified and in use by 45 BC on the 1st of January. Julius Caesar himself was deified in 42 BC by the 2nd Triumvirate which is going to include Marcus Aurelius, Anthony and Octavian and then Lepidus. And then we have to remember a very important moment in Roman history, 193. So you've had the assassination of the emperor, a commoness that we famously see depicted in the movie Gladiator, but he's dead. He's the son of Marcus Aurelius and it's the synod then that ratifies the next emperor and that's Pertenax. And he doesn't last very long but that's another story. So a lot of things happened historically on the 1st of January. Now let's take a look a little bit at the Tiber Island to familiarize yourself with how it looks and how it's been looking in the past several weeks. We've had a lot of rain in Rome. Hans Fabricius, this is from today and here is from a few weeks ago a much higher level of the Tiber River surrounding really enveloping the Tiber Island. Tiber Island looked like a boat in antiquity. Here's that portion from the Republican period that looks like the prowl part of a ship. Tiber Island, still a boat floating in the Tiber. Okay we can jump to January 2nd to 9th. A lot of things are happening. The Romans do famously remember when the Alemani are crossing over the Rhine that was frozen and invaded the Roman Empire in the middle of the 4th century. That's disastrous for the Romans. On the 3rd of January Cicero here he is depicted in the Hall of the Philosophers and the Capitaline Museums. A very grand figure for the late Republic and he was born in 106 BC. Then we have these movable feasts the first one of the year, the Compataglia. You're looking at the gods of the crossroads, the Lares. And so through the year the dates and the worship of these deities can shift in change year to year. It's followed by a lesser known event and festival, Vicapota. It's not your most famous goddess but she is associated with Victoria, the goddess of victory. And in particular the foundation day of this particular shrine located on the Valia Hill was created basically at the beginning of the Republic of Rome. Because when you kick out the kings immediately there's pushback and a number of the aristocratic Romans want to bring the kings back. So one of these people, Publius Valerius Publicola, was charged with treason against the state and one of the ways in which you respond to that was to tear down his domus, his house, and replace it with a shrine. And that is the Vicapota shrine that ultimately let's say archaeologically we seem to have left track of and largely the Valia Hill is enveloped in the imperial period by the temple of Venus and Rome constructed by Hadrian. Finally on the 9th we have a festival honoring Janus. It's his Montenegro festival and essentially the Agonalia revolves around sacrificing a ram in the regia, a very important holy site in the Roman Forum. And then it's followed by an Agonalia for three other deities, Mars, the Jovis, and Sol associated with Apollo throughout the year. So the Agonalia is something that repeats but it basically is the same kind of important animal sacrifice, a ram in the same place in the regia in the Roman Forum. Okay from the 10th to the 15th, no slowing down here. And you know you can look on and Twitter and people are talking about events in history and so forth and this kind of presentation today is really kind of tied all together and give you sense of the whole calendar because something pops up on your social media feed and I think we're getting saturated with those kinds of famous events and we kind of lose track about what's the real character and nature of a particular month. And so this idea as we're making our way through ties us I think closer to the big picture. So we have Julius Caesar famous crossing the Rubicon. We're not exactly sure on what point of the Rubicon. He crossed. We have the Nicarites in Constantinople, a great event in Roman history but it's over in the new capital of Constantinople and so we have then this plan that shows you the relationship between the Hippodrome and the Great Palace of the Emperor which mirrors the relationship established already in Rome, the Palatine Hill Palace and the Circus Maximus. No great famous horrific riots take place there in 532. Then we move forward in time again into the 4th century. Theodosius the first is born and he is the final emperor that rules cohesively the eastern and western half of the Empire. The Carmentalia brings us back to simpler times, times even before Romulus and Remus. The Carmentalia represents and focuses on a deity, a prophetess, a goddess that also looked back in time and forward into the future and she's associated with the Portencomentale which is right there at the beginning of the Vigus Eugadius right there in the Forum Bawarium. Okay, we remember a hero and great statesman of the Republican times. We have Gaius Marius who was someone said the strongman ruler general statesman that ushered in and succeeded by Sulla and then Pompey and then most famously Julius Caesar. So you can't have a Julius Caesar without having a Gaius Marius and on the 13th of January he dies in 86 BC. Happy birthday to Mark Antony on the 14th 83 BC. We all know Mark Antony and his rivalry with Octavian and of course his famous lover Cleopatra. On the 15th you have the death of the Emperor Galba. This is after the suicide of Nero and you have the year of the Four Emperors. So Galba after short reign gives gives gives way to Aotho and then from Aotho we have Vitellius and Vitellius then finally we have Vespasian and we all know Vespasian because he builds the Colosseum. The 17th to the 23rd we have again Theodosius he's now dying on the 17th of January 395 and what a legend he was and look where he died in Milan, Mediolanum and again it reminds us that as we move forward in time the concept of Rome is huge, the Empire is huge, but Rome is less and less important and we have other later capital cities that are developing and before there's a Constantinople there's a Mediolanum that acts as one of several capitals of the Empire. Octavian marries Livia that's one of the most famous couples in antiquity on this also in the 17th. We jump to the 19th and 225 and we have Gordian the 3rd is a young emperor of Rome and emperor in a volatile time and Lucius Varus that I'm sharing right here on the right he was a co-ruler with Marcus Aurelius so many people forget that or don't even know that Marcus Aurelius a great philosopher king started off ruling with Lucius Varus but he dies possibly due to the Antonine plague on the 23rd of January 169 leaving Marcus Aurelius to rule alone. Here he is, arguably sporting the most trendy ornate beard in ancient Roman times for an emperor and then January 23rd the Adotius the 1st he proclaims his son Anorius aged nine as his co-emperor and he'll become the first emperor of the Western Empire as we have the East and West that is split up and then we're going to have Anorius and Arcadius as the brothers East and West. From the 24th to the 27th first standout is Caligula and this is a miniature representation of the emperor it's fished out of the Tiber it's a very famous portrait he's assassinated on the 24th of January AD 41 he rules only four years and he's considered to be one of the most irresponsible crazy emperors of ancient Roman times and we'll be spending some time in the future talking about him in a separate lecture on that day Hadron was born considered to be one of the greatest most educated most cultured emperors of the Roman Empire. On the 25th Claudius succeeds Caligula the day after right he's propped up by the Praetorian Guard and from the 24th to the 28th we jump into old old religion the basically another movable feast but it is this festival of sowing so you can imagine the simple agricultural lifestyle and and way of life of the Romans started off with farming so obviously sowing crops cultivation harvest are going to always remain big in the Roman calendar even it becomes after it becomes the great urban capital. Nerva dies in the 27th succeeded by Trajan he dies in the Horti Solestiani which we have near the American Embassy today and then finally the the creation day the inauguration day of the Temple of Caster and Pollux right in the heart of the Roman Forum one of the two grand Republican structures Republican temples created in the fifth century that's the Temple of Saturn and then the Temple of Caster and Pollux looming large last built by Tiberius in AD 6. On January 30th two famous people were born Dides Julianus who is the famous emperor in the year of the five emperors that won his position as emperor by paying the most for an auction hosted by the Praetorian Guard he's born in 193 and in 58 BC Livia Drusilla the most famous wife of Augustus such an incredible character and it's no surprise that on her birthday the Arapakis the dynastic monument in the campus marshes was dedicated in 9 BC and finally the last day of the month January 30th in 36 BC and Tonya the younger and Tonya minor was born and she's the daughter of Mark Anthony and Octavia minor that is the sister of Augustus and she was the wife of Nero Claudius Drusis and the mother of Claudius and Germanicus grandmother of Caligula and great-grandmother of Nero here is her image that is located today a colossal figure in the Palazzo Altams of Museo Nazionale Romano