Chapter 16 Justitia

• During my first week in Boston, I remember going to the students’ courtroom just to look around. It was nothing like an actual courtroom, and there was a students’ trial going on, with the president of the Law Students Association presiding over the case. Everything was enchanting, and it all caught my attention, but not as much as the statue of The Lady Justice, an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial system. I fell in love with her attributes; the scale, the sword, and the blindfold, plus the fact that she often appears in pair with Prudentia. We never talked about the statue as a topic in class, but it was once mentioned during a lecture on Ancient Roman History And It's Escapades, that the statue originated from the personification of justice in Ancient Roman Art known as Lustitia or Justitia, who is equivalent to the Greek goddess, Themis.
• The origin of Lady Justice was Justitia (or Lustitia), the goddess of Justice within Roman mythology. Justitia was introduced by emperor Augustus, and was thus not a very old deity in the Roman pantheon. It was known that Justice was one of the virtues celebrated by emperor Augustus in his clipeus virtutis, and a temple of Justitia was established in Rome by emperor Tiberius, and thus, Justitia became a symbol for the virtue of justice with which every emperor wished to associate his regime; emperor Vespasian minted coins with the image of the goddess seated on a throne called Lustitia Augusta, and many emperors after him used the image of the goddess to proclaim themselves protectors of justice.
• Though formally called a goddess with her own temple and cult shrine in Rome, it appears that she was from the onset viewed more as an artistic symbolic personification rather than as an actual deity with religious significance.