[A.] Qui regno ita potitus urbem novam, conditam vi et armis, iure eam legibusque ac moribus de integro condere parat. Quibus cum inter bella adsuescere videret non posse, quippe efferari militia animos, mitigandum ferocem populum armorum 5 desuetudine ratus Ianum ad infimum Argiletum indicem pacis bellique fecit, apertus ut in armis esse civitatem, clausus pacatos circa omnes populos significaret.

Livy, i. 19.

1 Qui = Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome.

4-5 quippe . . . animos = since (he thought that) men’s tempers were made savage (brutalised) by warfare. efferari = orat. obl. part of Numa’s thoughts.

6 desuetudine = by disuse, i.e. by a cessation from the use of. Cf. de-docēre = unteach.

Ianum . . . Argiletum = (a temple of) Janus at the foot of the Argiletum, a slope to the N.E. of the Forum. (Prob. = the clayey ground, from argilla = white clay.)

8 clausus. It was closed for a short time, circ. 238 B.C., and again by Augustus 29-25 B.C.

[B.]

Sunt geminae Belli portae, sic nomine dicunt,

Religione sacrae et saevi formidine Martis: