Calceus

Normally made of leather and hobnailed, it was flat soled and typically reached the lower shin, entirely covering the foot and ankle.

It is frequently taken loosely as the general Latin word for any laced and covered shoe[1] distinguished from sandals, slippers, and boots.

Normally made of leather and hobnailed, the calceus was flat soled and typically reached the lower shin, entirely covering the foot and ankle.

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.

[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 pedarii.

[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.