Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Calceolus

Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, and Greek Lexicon (Rich, 1849)

CALCE'OLUS (ύποδημάτιον). Diminutive of CALCEUS; a small shoe or boot; and thence more especially applied to those worn by women. (Cic. N. D. i. 29.) The engraving (Calceolus/1.1) represents three specimens of women's shoes from the Pompeian paintings, of the most usual descriptions. It will be observed that all of them reach as high as the ankle, are made with soles and low heels, and with or without ties; but those which are tied are either fastened by a cord drawn in a hem round the top, or have merely a slit over the instep, through the sides of which the lace is passed, and not lappets, as was more usual in men's shoes. (See the next illustration.) There does not appear to have been any material difference between the shoes of the Greek and Roman females; for the later took their fashions from Greece, as ours do from France.

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  Calceolus/1.1