Libertas
Roman · deity · middle republic · deity
Libertas is the condition of not being a slave, which for a Roman meant standing under the law rather than under a master. Her temple went up on the Aventine in 297 BCE — the plebeian hill, and the right one for her. She wears the pileus, the cap a freed slave put on at manumission, and holds the rod used in the ceremony; the assassins of Caesar struck coins with both, claiming her. The figure who later became the Statue of Liberty descends from this iconography.
Domains
- freedom
Sources
- Reference treatment of the Temple of Libertas and of Libertas among the personified virtues.