January was added around 700 BCE (along with February) to bring the Roman calendar to 355 days, closer to a full a solar year of 365 days. Originally, the month was near the end of the year, but Julius Caesar reordered the calendar in 45 BCE, adding 10 days for a true solar year and January was placed at the beginning of the year.
January (Ianuarius in Latin) is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings.
Janus had two faces, which looked both backward and forward. With such an ambiguous description, Janus oversaw birth and death, war and peace, as well as the past and the future. He was invoked at the beginning of any number of things, including marriage, harvest, and journeys.
A temple to Janus in Rome would keep its doors open during war time, so that the god could intervene if necessary, and would close them during peace time. However, the doors were rarely closed and the ceremony to close them was an important event.
Janus is generally associated with doorkeepers and we derive our word "janitor" from his name.
"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception." --Aldous Huxley
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