Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Carbatinae

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

CARBAT'INAE (καρβάτιναι or καρπάτιναι). The commonest of all the kinds of coverings for the feet in use amongst the ancients, and peculiar to the peasantry of southern countries, Asiatics, Greeks, and Italians. (Xen. Anab. iv. 5. 14. Pollux, vii. 22. Hesych. s. v.) They consisted of a square piece of undressed oxhide, placed under the foot, as a sole; then turned up a the sides and over the toes, and fastened across the instep and round the lower part of the leg by thongs passing through holes on the edges, in the same way as with the crepida, on which account they are also called by that name in Catullus (98. 4.). The single piece of hide, which in fact constitutes the whole shoe, serving both for sole and upper leather, also explains the meaning of the epithets by which they are described in Hesychius — μονόπελμον and μονόδερμον, i. e. having the sole and upper leather all in one. Foot coverings of this sort are almost universally worn by the Italian peasantry at this day, as represented in the illustration (Carbatinae/1.1), from a sketch made by the writer, which is introduced here in preference to an ancient example, on account of the clear idea it gives of the material and manner in which they were made; but the Greek vases and Pompeian paintings afford many specimens of the same; as in Tischbein, 1. 14. Museo Borbon. xi. 25. and the right-hand figure at p. 31. of this work s. ANABOLIUM.

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  Carbatinae/1.1