
Without a Greek equivalent, the two-faced god Janus was the most important god to the Romans. He is the god of the beginnings and the ends, change and completion. He looks backwards into the past and forwards into the future. Janus symbolizes the duality in the eternal laws, such as life and death, creation and destruction, light and darkness, the before and after. He is the god of the gates, with one face watching the entrance and the other watching the exit.
When the Roman soldiers left for war, they passed through his temple and the gates remained open until there was piece on all borders of the empire.
This mint was issued to represent the rare moment of peace between the Punic wars (241 – 218 BC).
MINT FROM ANCIENT ROME, 220 BC
MEASURES 21 MM