What Does Veritas Aequitas Mean?
Veritas is taken from the mythology of the Romans and means truth. Aequitas comes from the ancient Greek culture, meaning justice. As the Roman society believed, veritas aequitas as a motto should affect the lives of us all. This means personal honor and truth in actions and justice, regardless of the circumstances.
Veritas was the goddess of truth and was a daughter of Saturn. In Greece, Veritas was known by the name of Alatheia. She was attributed to the virtue of truthfulness. Every good citizen of the Roman Empire was expected to possess this quality.
Aequitas comes from the ancient Greek culture. It means justice. This is coupled with the fact that to deal out justice, the facts of the situation must be known.
These two terms, when coupled, carry the meaning of truth and justice in all things. Truth is not useful unless it can affect a given situation and bring about justice.
In the courts of law, the highest ideal of any legal system is to determine the truth in a given dispute and to dispense justice to all involved. Justice is never served when judgments are made based on either falsehoods or lack of complete information. Therefore, before justice can be determined and dispensed, a full investigation must be made to determine the truth.
Popular Culture Uses
The words, veritas aequitas, have been used most recently in two different places and have thus filtered back into popular culture. One recent use of the words occured in the movie industry.
A movie named, Boondock Saints featured two characters that had these words tattooed on the back of their hands. The two characters are brothers and each one has one of the words tattooed on them. The two brothers were acting on a personal mission from God to right the wrongs done to others by the victims of their killing spree. As the movie illustrated, those criminals that commit crimes against others need to be brought to justice to pay for their crimes. In the movie, the brothers dealt out their own brand of justice based on the life of criminals.
The other unlikely place that the words are used is in an online game called, World of Warcraft. The words form the title of a guild in that game. So, just what does veritas aequitas mean? The guild on World of Warcraft has taken the name to signify that they may raid and steal from others because their personal code of conduct is one that is based on truth and justice. Their way of life is one of honor. They can be counted on to keep their word and live up to their commitments.