Ever wonder where we get the word 'money'? A little background on a word that’s so much a part of our daily life.

It all starts with the Roman goddess, Juno.

The Romans had many gods, their chief deity being Jupiter, a.k.a. Jove. He was the Roman equivalent of the Greek's Zeus. (If you remember from your ancient history class, the Roman deities were mainly copies of the Greek pantheon.)

Jupiter was the patron deity of ancient Rome and he ruled over their laws and social order. Jupiter was married to his sister, Juno, with whom he sired Mars, the Roman god of war, and Vulcan, the god of fire. Clearly a dysfunctional family, but on par with some of today’s reality television. I guess some things never change.

Juno was the Roman version of the Greek’s Hera and was the queen of Roman gods. The month of June is named after her and as the god of matrons and marriage she’s the reason we traditionally hold our weddings in that month, good weather aside.

Blame it on the French

In 390 BC, the Gauls launched a siege against Rome. The story goes that a flock of Juno’s sacred geese began to make a racket as the Gauls tried to sneak up on the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, warning the Romans and saving the day.

The significance of this is that the Temple of Capitoline Jupiter, which was dedicated to the Capitoline triad deities of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, was where all the gold, silver and bronze coins were kept. Unlike today, coins were one of the primary means of currency in Ancient Rome. We tend to use bank notes (paper money), checks and plastic cards to move our funds around and transact. But, the Romans used coins to pay soldiers, collect taxes and increasingly to transact common dealings between the inhabitants of the empire.

Jesus on Rendering to The Man

We see an allusion to first century AD Roman tax collecting when the Pharisees try to trap Jesus in a theological-political snare by asking Him if one should pay poll-tax to Caesar or not. He outsmarts them by asking for a Roman coin, a denarius, which was used to pay the tax. “Who’s face is on it?” He asks. “Caesar’s,” they replied. “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."

Game. Set. Match.

How Juno Got Her Groove

But getting back to 390 BC, it was the act of Juno’s sacred geese that gave her the epitaph of “warning” or “protector of funds”. The Romans gave Juno many epitaphs to describe her various roles, similar to the how the Hebrews had many titles for Jehova to describe His aspects and nature: Jehova-Jira (The Lord who Provides, or Sees To It), Jehova-Rapha (The Lord who Heals) or Jehova-Nissi (The Lord Our Banner).

Here are some examples of Juno’s epitaphs:

Juno Sospita - Juno the savior
Juno Regina - Juno the Queen
Juno Interduca - Juno who leads the bride into marriage
Juno Lucina - Juno who brings children into the light

After the incident involving her geese, Juno was known as Juno Moneta or “Juno who warns”, which eventually became “Juno who protects funds”, due to the fact that her warning kept the coins safe. This aspect of Juno became so important to the Romans and she became so identified with protecting funds that a temple was built specifically for Juno Moneta in 344 BC. This temple became Rome’s primary mint, where all coins were created and stored. Thus, Rome’s currency, and the currency of the Western World at that time, were intimately tied to one of the three most important gods of Rome, Juno, the Queen of gods and men.

Goes Together Like A Horse & Carriage

If you haven’t made the connection yet, our words ‘money’, ‘monetary’ and ‘mint’ all come from Juno's epitaph: Moneta.

Having money and religion so intimately bound offends our modern sensibilities. We think of mixing money and faith as an issue of credibility. If a church is focused on money, it's not legitimate or trustworthy and is in it for the wrong reason. But, in ancient times, among the pagans, the idea of money and worship were embraced. Romans worshiped their goddess for the sake of money. The money flowed out from her temple and often had her likeness on the coins. They never gave it a second thought.

For almost a thousand years it was clear to the Romans and their subjects throughout the known world, Juno Moneta was all about the money.