Carbatina

carbatinae) was a kind of shoe common among the rural poor of ancient Greece and Rome from remote antiquity to around the 3rd century, consisting of a piece of rawhide pulled around the foot and then tied down to hold it in place.

Latin carbatina was a transcription of Greek karbatínē (καρβατίνη), probably cognate with kárphō (κἁρφω) and originally meaning something like "made of dried skin" or "hide".

Easily made without special tools or training, they were the emergency footwear used by the Ten Thousand mercenaries during their retreat back to Greece after the execution of their leaders by the satrap Tissaphernes.

[2] By the time of the Roman Empire, use was generally restricted to the rural poor[1] although they remained a step up from going barefoot, which by then was a mark of extreme poverty or slavery.

However, equivalent shoes continued to be worn by the ancient Germans, by the subjects of their successor states, and by the rural poor generally into the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period.

Ernest Hebert 's 1855 The Girls of Alvito in the Papal States , wearing carbatinae with footwraps
A Casertan woman circa 1860 wearing carbatina and traditional Campanian clothing
An 1884 depiction of carbatinae [ 1 ]
The carbatinae recovered from the bog body now known as Damendorf Man ( c. 300 BC )
Adrien Guignet 's c. 1843 Scene from the Retreat of the Ten Thousand , showing the 401 BC Battle of Cunaxa