Roman Shoe Found at Birdoswald

Author(s): F. Haverfield
Source: The Classical Review, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Mar., 1898), p. 142
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/692178 .
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142 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW.
ARCHAEOLOGY.
ROMAN SHOE FOUND AT BIRD-
OSWALD.
ROMAN shoes of various sorts have been
found not
unfrequently
both in
England
and in various other countries. The
shoe,
of which an illustration is
appended,
was
found last summer in the course of ex-
cavations outside the Roman fort of Ambo-
glanna (Birdoswald)
on
Hadrian's
Wall
close to Gilsland. The illustration
represents
it half-size. It
belongs
to a class of shoes
which are distinct from the
calcei, caligae,
etc.,
of
literature,
but which were
widely
used in
ancient
times,
and are still common in
many
parts
of
Europe.
It is made of one
piece
of
leather
without
any special
sole;
there is a
vertical
seam,
as in modern
shoes,
behind
the
heel,
and the toe is cut into
strips
each
ROMAN SHOE: BIRDOSWALD,
1897.
of which ends in an
eyehole
for the lace.
For the
fastening
over the foot there are
two holes on each
side, which,
however,
resemble buttonholes rather than laceholes.
The leather has been tanned and to certain
extent ornamented. Shoes of this class
have been found at other
places
on or near
Hadrian's
Wall,
at the
Saalburg
fort on the
German Limes near
Homburg,
and else-
where. Of modern
parallels
the Scotch
' rivelins' and '
pampoosties'
are,
I am
told,
very
similar,
and so are the
peasant's
shoes
in
parts
of
Italy,
Austria and the Balkans.
I have walked
myself
in such shoes in the
northern
Carpathians.
The Greek and
Roman name for this
type
of
footgear
seems
to be
Kapfl/drwca
and
carbatinae,
the latter
used
by
Catullus xcviii. These are
usually
described
by
modern writers as shoes of
undressed
leather,
but their
special
feature
seems rather to be that
they
are made of
one
piece
of leather without
any proper
sole.
F. HAVERFIELD.
THE BASE OF THE POLYZALOS
BRONZE.
THE
second line of the
inscription
on the
base of the bronze dedicated
by Polyzalos
at
Delphi,
which was discovered
by
the
French school in
1896,
has caused some
difficulty.
In the
interesting report
which
M. Homolle
furnished
to the
Academy
of
Inscriptions,
he offered an
explanation
which
is not
satisfactory;
and it is clear that it
did not
satisfy
himself. The
legend is:-
A
CYON
YM
AIO
A.
M. Homolle
explains: a]
C$
Ewvrov
'Aro'X[Xawvt, supposing
that
C$
Eov,'ov
indi-
cates the
position
of the bronze
group
to
the left of another monument.
There are
three
objections. (1)
The elision of the
genitive
termination is unheard
of;
and its
accidental omission on a stone of this kind
is incredible.
(2)
The first line is a
hexameter;
it is therefore
practically
certain that the second line was a hexameter
or a
pentameter.
M. Homolle's restoration
does not conform to this condition.
(3)
It
is hard to believe that such
superfluous
information was inscribed on the stone.
Whoever looked at the
group
saw to left
and to
right
of it. One is reminded of the
famous
fingerpost
which advised those who
could not read to
inquire
at the
blacksmith's
shop.
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