I'm familiar with the fact that the Gates of Janus / Temple of Janus was opened when at war, and closed when at peace, and that there was great public fanfare attached to this act. What I couldn't find out was why, in particular, Janus would be the god for this? Was there special identification of Janus as either a war deity or peace deity? Did the doors merely serve as a sort of yellow ribbon, to visually show that people were thinking about the war, or did it have greater spiritual or social significance?