![]() Aequitas or Equitas is the deified personification of equity or fairness. She is most often depicted holding a pair of scales to represent fair dealings and equality. She is shown in a dignified pose, wearing a diadem and holding a scepter or staff, and sometimes She is also given a cornucopia, the symbol of abundance and wealth. She represents true fairness, a different concept from justice—for justice is under the law, and must follow it to the letter. Equity, however, is beyond the laws made by humankind, which, however fairly intended, must always be imperfect. Equity is what allows the law to be modified in circumstances that could not have been foreseen by the original lawmakers; with honesty and conscience, the concept of equity has played a role in shaping justice systems through the ages. This is shown in the definition given for the Latin word aequitas,which, besides "fairness" and "impartiality", also means "symmetry and evenness", eloquently represented by Her balancing scales. Some have seen in Her a Goddess of honest merchants and fair dealings in contracts, negotiations, and other merchant-related endeavors; by this definition the cornucopia is seen as a symbol of the wealth to be gained through fair enterprise. In the time of the Empire, Aequitas was worshipped as a quality of the Emperor, and on some coins is named Aequitas Augusti ("the Equity of the Emperor"). Like quite a few other personifications, She was used for propaganda purposes, to extoll some glorious attribute of the Emperor. Though the concept of aequitas was known since at least Aristotle's time (the 4th century BCE), the Goddess seems to be a late addition to the Roman pantheon; the coins I found all date from the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the current era. She is also called Aecetia. |
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