According to Livy 1.19 the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, decided to distract the early, warlike Romans from their violent ways by instilling in them awe and reverence.

His projects included promoting religion, certain priesthoods, and the building of temples as a distraction with the beneficial effect of imbuing spirituality.

The latter was a difficult matter, and it rarely happened, since the realm was always engaged in some war, as its increasing size brought it into collision with the barbarous nations which encompassed it round about.

These coins depict the Temple of Janus as a small rectangular building with two doors accompanied by two columns having Ashlar masonry on the outside and only bronze plating on the inside.

However, a Roman viewed the Temple of Janus's gates as having them shut was a time of celebration and of pride for the rulers of Rome.

The only ancient author to date it was Orosius,[13] who associates the event with the birth of Christ, traditionally (but probably incorrectly) assigned to December 1 BC.

Inez Scott Ryberg and Gaius Stern date the third closure more plausibly to 13 BC based on the joint return of Augustus and Agrippa to Rome after pacifying the provinces.

[14] Sir Ronald Syme[15] dated the closure to 7 BC, to coincide with the triumph of Tiberius and his second consulship, the events of which year are lost in a gap in the surviving manuscripts of Cassius Dio.

Nero minted a large series of coins with the Ara Pacis (and the Janus itself with closed gates) on the reverse to commemorate this event.

The Roman poet Virgil included in the Aeneid the opening of the Gates of Janus to start war between the Trojans and the Latins.

16th century Roman priests used them to justify the seat of Christianity being moved from Rome to Jerusalem and described the Vatican as the "Throne of Janus".