The calceus (pl.: calcei) was the common upper-class male footwear of the Roman Republic and Empire. Normally made of leather and hobnailed, it was flat soled and typically reached the lower shin, entirely covering the foot and ankle. It was secured with crossed thongs or laces. Equivalent to a short boot or high-top shoe, it was lighter than the military caliga but sturdier than slip-on shoes like the soccus and able to easily handle outdoor use.

Name

The Latin word calceusCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text derives from calxCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text ("heel") and the usually Grecian suffix -eusCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text, meaning essentially "heely" or "thing for the heel". It is frequently taken loosely as the general Latin word for any laced and covered shoe^[1] distinguished from sandals, slippers, and boots. Theodor Mommsen even considered it to sometimes intend sandals as well.^[2] Similarly, medieval Latin used the adjective discalceātusCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text to indicate both mendicant orders which only used sandals and those which went entirely barefoot.

Design

Normally made of leather and hobnailed, the calceus was flat soled and typically reached the lower shin, entirely covering the foot and ankle. It was secured with crossed thongs or laces. Equivalent to a short boot or high-top shoe, it was lighter than the military caliga but sturdier than slip-on shoes like the soccus and able to easily handle outdoor use.^[3]

Calcei were considered a distinctive part of the national dress of male Roman citizens, alongside the toga. The combination of toga and calcei was impressive, but also hot and uncomfortable. The Roman poet Martial claimed that, in their leisure time and in the more relaxed surroundings of rural life, hardly anyone used it by the early imperial period.^[4] Even in Rome, some high-ranking citizens preferred to wear light Grecian sandals or socci rather than calcei to "go with the crowd".^[5][6]

Types

The calcei of most plebs were made of undyed but tanned leather. (The version made with untanned rawhide instead was known as the pero.) The "patrician calceus" (calceus patriciusCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text) seems to have often been dyed red, Tyrian purple, or some equivalent.^[7] Senators and higher ranking priests were likewise expected to wear the mulleus or "red calceus" (calceus mulleusCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text) along with their red-edged toga praetexta while engaged in their public duties. Festus claimed the mulleus was originally used by the kings of Alba Longa before being adopted by the patricians.^[8] Cassius Dio states that the patrician shoes were originally marked with the letter R,^[9] although early forms of Latin used an R closer in shape to the later P. Francis X. Ryan has offered that this class distinction in footwear—rather than procedural status—may have been responsible for the name of the backbencher senatores pedariiCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text.^[2] Cato the Elder stated that, by the end of the Republic, plebs who had reached curule office were entitled to the formerly patrician footwear.^[8] Plebeian generals like Marius who celebrated a triumph were likewise permitted to wear them.^[10] Talbert states that by the imperial era there is no conclusive evidence that footwear continued to differ between the classes as a whole,^[11] possibly because the emperors began to restrict the use of certain status symbols to themselves.^[2]

Other calcei were distinguished by their ornamentation. The "equestrian calceus" (calceus equestrisCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text or equesterCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text) included distinct crescent-shaped buckles.Category:All articles with unsourced statementsCategory:Articles with unsourced statements from June 2023^{[citation needed]} The "senatorial calceus" (calceus senatoriusCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text) was likewise distinguished by a crescent-shaped ornament, an ivory lunula attached to the back of the shoe.^[12] By the mid-imperial period, this was probably made of black leather.^[13]

The "turned calceus" (New Latin calceus repandusCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text) was an unrelated pointy-toed unisex Etruscan form of footwear, which received its name from a passage in Cicero where he references Juno Sospita's calceoliCategory:Articles containing Latin-language text, "little calceus-like shoes".^[14]

See also

Look up calceus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to CalceusCategory:Commons category link from Wikidata.

• List of shoe styles
• Clothing in ancient Rome
• Soccus, Solea, and Caligae
• Discalced

References