Libertas

Libertas (Latin for Liberty) was the Roman goddess and embodiment of liberty.

Temples and derived inspirations

In 238 BC, before the Second Punic War, having long been a Roman deity along with other personified virtues, Libertas assumed goddess status. Tiberius Gracchus ordered the construction of her first temple on Aventine Hill; census tables were stored inside the temple's atrium. A subsequent temple was built (58–57 BC) on Palatine Hill, another of the Seven hills of Rome, by Publius Clodius Pulcher. By building and consecrating the temple on the former house of then-exiled Cicero, Clodius ensured that the land was legally uninhabitable. Upon his return, Cicero successfully argued that the consecration was invalid and thus managed to reclaim the land and destroy the temple. In 46 BC, the Roman Senate voted to build and dedicate a shrine to Libertas in recognition of Julius Caesar, but no temple was built; instead, a small statue of the goddess stood in the Roman Forum.

Libertas, along with other Roman goddesses, has served as the inspiration for many modern-day symbols, including the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in the United States of America. According to the National Park Service, the Statue's Roman robe is the main feature that invokes Libertas and the symbol of Liberty from which the Statue derives its name.

Libertas (Czech Republic)

Libertas.cz is a eurosceptic party in the Czech Republic that was founded in 2009 by the former media entrepreneur and MEP Vladimír Železný. After some controversies it became an associate of Declan Ganley's pan-European alliance Libertas.eu.

History

After comprehensive negotiations with president Václav Klaus and other leading Czech eurosceptics, Ganley's attempts to bring about a Czech branch of Libertas.eu remained unsuccessful. The newly founded Party of Free Citizens, which was endorsed by Klaus, unexpectedly refused to cooperate with Ganley's pan-European alliance, leaving the name Libertas unclaimed in the Czech Republic.

This enabled the former media mogul Vladimír Železný, a eurosceptic Member of the European Parliament to register a party under exactly the designated name by January 21, 2009. It remained unclear whether the registration had been accomplished in some way on behalf of the European Libertas.eu or without any consent.

Supporters of Železný's Libertas.cz included Jana Bobošíková and Vlastimil Tlustý but not Declan Ganley and his followers, who promptly disavowed the party. However, after Václav Klaus intervened, two MPs, Vlastimil Tlustý and Jan Schwippel, changed sides, leaving ODS and joining Železný's Libertas.cz. This led the European Libertas.eu to a volte-face, now claiming Železný's Libertas.cz an affiliate.

Libertas (disambiguation)

Libertas was the Roman goddess of liberty, a personification of the political libertas that distinguished the free from the enslaved.

Libertas (meaning freedom in several languages) may also refer to: