Aequitas

In Roman mythology, Aequitas was the minor goddess of fair trade and honest merchants.  Aequitas was also a personification of the virtues equity and fairness of the emperor (Aequitas Augusti).  She is depicted with a cornucopia and a balance suggesting Aequitas Augusti is a source of prosperity. 


DICTIONARY OF ROMAN COINS



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AEQVITAS. - The Equity, referred to on Roman coins, signifies that virtue so much to be desired in sovereign princes, which prompts them to administer the affairs of the public (especially in re monetaria), with impartial devotedness to the interests of the people. Aequitas is almost always represented under the figure of a woman, clothed in the stola, generally standing, sometimes but not often seated, with a pair of scales, or (but very rarely) a patera, in the right hand, and in the left a cornucopiae, or the hasta pura, or a sceptre.

"The scales, that natural emblem of Equity, are used by Persius to express the decision of right and wrong - the cornucopiae signifies the good which results from examining into the real merits of causes" - Smyth.

The epigraph of AEQVITAS (or AEQVITATI) AVG, or AVGVSTI, belongs to the mints of Vitellius, Titus, Domitian, Antoninus Pius, Pertinax, Septimius Severus, Alexander Severus, Macrinus, Maximinus, Gordianus Pius, Volusianus, Macrianus, Quietus.

AEQVITAS PVBLICA, or AEQVITATI PVBLICAE presents itself on medals of Septimius Severus, Julia Domna, Caracalla, Geta, Elagabalus, Gallienus.


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