Aequitas

{{Short description|Roman legal concept}}

{{about|the legal concept|the Canadian stock exchange|Aequitas Neo}}

Image:Antoninianus Claudius II-RIC 0137.jpg struck under Claudius II. The goddess is holding her symbols, the balance and the cornucopia.]]

Aequitas (genitive aequitatis) is the Latin concept of justice, equality, conformity, symmetry, or fairness.{{Cite book |last=Jordan |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aqDC5bwx4_wC |title=Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses |date=2014-05-14 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0985-5 |pages=6 |language=en}} It is the origin of the English word "equity".{{Cite web |title=Equity | Origin and meaning of equity by Online Etymology Dictionary |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=equity |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929145030/https://www.etymonline.com/word/equity |archive-date=September 29, 2022 |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |publisher= |language=English}}{{Cite book |last=Jr |first=Daniel L. Rentfro |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O6DBDwAAQBAJ |title=The Law of Freedom: Justice and Mercy in the Practice of Law |date=2019-10-29 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-5326-5102-1 |language=en}} In ancient Rome, it could refer to either the legal concept of equity,{{Cite book |last=Vit-Suzan |first=Ilan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qQYHDAAAQBAJ |title=Architectural Heritage Revisited: A Holistic Engagement of its Tangible and Intangible Constituents |date=2016-04-15 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-17950-4 |pages=54 |language=en}} or fairness between individuals.Quentin Skinner, [https://books.google.com/books?id=OKMicP_RRn8C&dq=Cicero%2C+aequitas&pg=PA49 Visions of Politics] (Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 49 [https://books.google.com/books?id=OKMicP_RRn8C&dq=Cicero%2C+aequitas&pg=PA49 online.] See also George Mousourakis, The Historical and Institutional Context of Roman Law (Ashgate, 2003), pp. 28, 32–35.

Cicero defined aequitas as "tripartite": the first, he said, pertained to the gods above (ad superos deos) and is equivalent to pietas, religious obligation; the second, to the Manes, the underworld spirits or spirits of the dead, and was sanctitas, that which is sacred; and the third pertaining to human beings (homines) was iustitia, "justice".Cicero, Topica 90, as cited by Jerzy Linderski, "Q. Scipio Imperator," in Imperium sine fine: T. Robert S. Broughton and the Roman Republic (Franz Steiner, 1996), p. 175.

During the Roman Empire, Aequitas as a divine personification was part of the religious propaganda of the emperor, under the name Aequitas Augusti,{{Cite book |last1=Adkins |first1=Lesley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGY1Sqjwf8kC |title=Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome |last2=Adkins |first2=Roy A. |last3=Adkins |first3=Both Professional Archaeologists Roy A. |date=2014-05-14 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-0-8160-7482-2 |pages=281 |language=en}} which also appeared on coins.J. Rufus Fears, "[https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110850680-007/html?lang=en The Cult of Virtues and Roman Imperial Ideology]," Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.17.2 (1981), pp. 897–898, 900, 903–904. She is depicted on coins holding a cornucopia and a balance scale (libra),{{Cite book |last1=McIntyre |first1=Gwynaeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6JqkDwAAQBAJ |title=Uncovering Anna Perenna: A Focused Study of Roman Myth and Culture |last2=McCallum |first2=Sarah |date=2019-01-24 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-04844-7 |pages=120 |language=en}} which was more often a symbol of "honest measure" to the Romans than of justice.Linderski, "[https://www.academia.edu/8442285/J_Linderski_Q_Scipio_Imperator_RQ_II_2007 Q. Scipio Imperator]," p. 175.