THE CAP OF LIBERTY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21538, 9 January 1932, Page 15

THE CAP OF LIBERTY

The right of covering the head was in early times a mark of liberty; slaves only were bareheaded. When a slave was given his freedom it was customary for his late master to place on his head a small rod cloth cap, called “ pileus.” He was then termed “libertinus ” (a freedman), and his name was registered in the city tribes. When Saturninus took possession of the Capitol in 263, 8.C., he hoisted a cap on the top of his spear, to indicate that all slaves who joined his standard should be free. When Marius incited the slaves to take up arms against Sylla, he employed the same symbol, and when Caesar was murdered the conspirators marched forth in a body, with a cap elevated on a spear in token of liberty. The Goddess of Liberty in the Aventine Mount was represented as holding in her hand a cap. the symbol of freedom. In France the Jacobins wore a red cap; in England a blue cap with a white border, and the inscription “liberty ” in letters of gold is used as a symbol of the constitutional liberty of the nation. Britannia is sometimes represented as holding such a cap on the point of her spear.