The noun lībertās 'freedom', on which the name of the deity is based, is a derivation from Latin līber 'free', stemming from Proto-Italic *leuþero-, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁leudʰero- 'belonging to the people', hence 'free'.

When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaved, and wore instead of his hair an undyed pileus (πίλεον λευκόν, Diodorus Siculus Exc.

"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, "vindicavit in libertatem".

The master in the meantime held the slave, and after he had pronounced the words "hunc hominem liberum volo," he turned him round (momento turbinis exit Marcus Dama, Persius, Sat.

The magistratus then declared him to be free [...][5]The Roman Republic was established simultaneously with the creation of Libertas and is associated with the overthrow of the Tarquin kings.

[6] In 238 BC, before the Second Punic War, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus built a temple to Libertas on the Aventine Hill.

By building and consecrating the temple on the site of the former house of then-exiled Cicero, Clodius ensured that the land was legally uninhabitable.

This is the image which later influenced French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi in the creation of his statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.