Roman Soldier Sandals Facts

Caliga comes from the latin callus meaning hard as hobnails were hammered into hard leather soles before being sewn onto a softer leather lattice.

Roman soldier sandals facts.

Sandals were adapted to work situations and butchers wore sandals made with a slice of cork sandwiched between two layers of leather on the sole and held together with small wooden pegs. Roman weapons army formations. Roman soldiers used rigorous formations and clever tactics to defeat their opponents on the battlefield. They were worn by the lower ranks of roman cavalrymen and foot soldiers and possibly by some centurions.

Caligae singular caliga were heavy duty thick soled openwork boots with hobnailed soles. Common citizens wore unmarked clothes but those holding political or administrative positions had their clothes marked to show their standing in society. Romans paid special attention to their clothing and wealthy romans followed fashion trends of the time the clothes were designed and marked in a manner that depicted the social status of the man wearing them. This might seem amusing but history suggests that more than one roman foot soldier has been killed by his boots.

Roman weapons legionaries carried the same weapons so they could fight together in formation. There were 12 major ranks which a roman soldier could achieve with the highest being legatus augusti proparetore the military governor of a province of the empire main weapons carried by the roman soldier were gladius pugio and pilum. The focale a scarf worn by the roman legionary to protect the neck from chafing caused by constant contact with the soldier s armor. Only men over the age of twenty could become a soldier and join one of the legions of the roman army.

Thanks to their famous discipline they could take up and hold positions even in the heat of battle. Considering how prized modern italian leather goods are today it is perhaps not too surprising that there was a good deal of variety of the types of ancient roman sandals and shoes. Here are some facts about roman soldiers. The roman empire stretched far beyond greek boundaries and the terrain and weather conditions necessitated more sturdy footwear van driel murray 2007.

During the middle kingdom more robust footwear saw increasing use of sandals by soldiers and travellers lichtheim vol ii 1975. The shoe maker sutor was a valued craftsman in the days of the roman empire and the romans contributed the entire foot encasing shoe to the mediterranean world. All regular roman soldiers legionaries were roman citizens but this didn t mean that they had to live in rome. Roman sandal and shoe making and vegetable tanning van driel murray 2007 were therefore introduced to the conquered.

The jewish chronicler josephus writing about the roman siege of jerusalem in ad 70 recounted the death of a centurion called julianus who had seen his soldiers putting up a poor defence and who had sprung forward to charge into.