Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Caligarius

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

CALIGA'RIUS. One who followed the trade of making soldiers' shoes (caligae). (Lamprid. Alex. Sev. 33. Inscript. ap. Grut. 649. 1.) The example (Caligarius/1.1) is from a sepulchral marble at Milan, which bears the inscription SUTOR CALIGARIUS, thus identifying the trade. It is of coarse execution, and has suffered from age, but is a valuable relic, because it proves that the caliga was a close-fitting shoe, made upon a last, and not a sandal, which left the toes exposed, as has been generally inferred from Bartoli's engravings of the triumphal arches and columns. The workman appears to hold the handle of an awl in his right hand, and in the left a caliga on the last, while the fellow-shoe is on the table before him.

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  Caligarius/1.1