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PACE. P.R. TERRA. MARIQ. PARTA. IANVM. CLVSIT. - The first and second brass medals of Nero, on which this interesting legend appears, represent in their type the temple of Janus shut - a circumstance limited to the very rare epochas of an universal peace. - It is only on his coins that Nero is recorded to have closed the sacred fane of old BIFRONS, after having procured peace for the Roman people by land and sea. But possibly the infatuation of that vain tyrant prompted him to boast of a peace which seems denied as a fact by some historians - and though the coinis themselves are common, it is uncertain to what year the reverse alludes. - On others we read Pace populi Romani ubique (instead of Terra Marique) parta Janum clusit. - It will be remarked that CLVSIT is here read for CLVSIT is here read for CLAVSIT. That "this was a mode of writing the word in Nero's time is proved (observes Eckhel), not only by these coins, but by the contemporaneous authority of Seneca, who in various passages of his work employs the term cludere for claudere." - See Janus.
According to Livy, the temple of Janus, which remained always open when Rome was at war, was shut only once, from the foundation of the city to the battle of Actium. Under Augustus it was closed three times; and one of the occasions was about the perion of our Blessed Saviour's Nativity, when as the writings of the Fathers attest, the whole world enjoyed peace