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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtis, post: 24776962, member: 26430&quot;]Right, it&#039;s very well known that&#039;s where the French / American version of Liberty comes from.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m sure the Roman coins also meant it in the political sense (as in, &quot;I [Vitellius or other emperor], liberate you from whatever came before&quot;).</p><p><br /></p><p>But you can find any number of sources explaining that the vindicta &amp; pileus were used in the manumission of slaves ceremony.</p><p><br /></p><p>A typical excerpt (which goes on) chosen by convenience (many others are available to the same effect):</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>The ceremony of the Manumissio by the Vindicta was as follows:</p><p><br /></p><p>— The master brought his slave before the magistratus, and stated the grounds (causa) of the intended manumission. The lictor of the magistratus laid a rod (festuca) on the head of the slave, accompanied with certain formal words, in which he declared that he was a free man ex Jure Quiritium, that is, &quot;vindicavit in libertatem.&quot; ... It may be true that originally the manumission by Vindicta only gave libertas and not civitas...</p><p><a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Manumissio.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Manumissio.html" rel="nofollow">https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Manumissio.html</a></p><p><br /></p></blockquote><p><i>Edit</i>: And reference on the cap:</p><blockquote><p>The legal act of manumission was often followed by a religious ceremony in the temple of Feronia, where the freedman appeared clad in the toga or dress of a Roman citizen, and with a pileus, or particular kind of cap, on his shaven head. This last circumstance explains the expression “servos ad pileum vocare” (<b><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Liv.%2024.32&amp;lang=original" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Liv.%2024.32&amp;lang=original" rel="nofollow">Liv. 24.32</a></b>), which means to promise slaves their liberty in order to induce them to join in some civil disturbance (cf. Plaut. <u>Amph.</u> 3.4,16; <u>Poen.</u> 5.2, 2; <i>Serv. ad Aen. 8.564</i>). The pileus was still worn in the time of Justinian, since he declares that slaves who attend the funeral of their master with the cap of freedom on their heads (<a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=pileati&amp;la=la&amp;can=pileati0&amp;prior=libertas" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=pileati&amp;la=la&amp;can=pileati0&amp;prior=libertas" rel="nofollow">pileati</a>) become Roman citizens (Cod. 7, 6, 1.5)</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:id=manumissio-cn" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:id=manumissio-cn" rel="nofollow">https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:id=manumissio-cn</a></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Just to clarify again, I don&#039;t think Libertas Roman coins were about literal slaves; this was a figurative symbol/metaphor for liberty/&quot;freedom from X.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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