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Caligae and foot pain....help? - Nerva - 06-09-2006
Hi there
I'm trying to figure out a way to ease my foot pain when wearing caligae. One idea I had was to wear Calcei, then I could insert an orthotic to help with arch support but I don't know if they were in use during the mid first centuary. I'd appreciate any advice.
Re: Caligae and foot pain....help? - Tarbicus - 06-09-2006
Surely it's more important to do the deed than worry about putting something in your calcei, or even caligae, if there's pain involved. Can the orthotics be disguised to look brown if you wanted to wear caligae? If anyone objects then I'd suggest scrutinising their kit down to the washers and weave of their tunic :wink:
Only my opinion.
Re: Caligae and foot pain....help? - Chuck Russell - 06-09-2006
a few things
wear undones with the foot support inside them
put a cork type support in the caligue. there natural colored usually so they dont detract
Re: Caligae and foot pain....help? - Nerva - 06-09-2006
I guess your right. I never had a problem up to recently, guess I've got falling arches along with everything else going south! I know that fell boots" which were found at Vindolanda were in use so I might try these instead of Caligae.
caligae - claudia crisis - 06-09-2006
All re-enactment groups tend to wear the same style caligae, based on the same artefact. There is a huge variety of shoes at Vindolanda to chose from. None actually look like this "standard" military shoe. However, there are a number of closed shoe styles which you may want to look at.
Re-enactment too often seems to be turning into an endurance test - standing in force 10 gales, pelted by snow, hail & everything nasty nature can think up. Many of us who are silly enough to participate are not in first flush of youth - some of us even commit the utimate crime of being "disabled" in some way.
Why should you be tortured for needing a bit of comfort.
Do we know for a fact that authentic Romans were so into pain that they would deliberately wear uncomfortable shoes? Of course not! The army marched miles on these things - they would not get far if they were in agony.
You are only portraying an image as realistic as possible of a "real" Roman.
Be sensible and try to find something which compromises authenticity with reality.
Try to find something, perhaps from Vindolanda, which works for you
Good Luck
Hilary
Re: Caligae and foot pain....help? - Peroni - 06-09-2006
I find that in this modern age of padded heels, arch supports and being able to walk 'heel-first' is totally different from wearing calicae/calceus. I tend to walk flat-footed in Roman boots and consciously don't dig my heel in first as I would in modern shoes.
Maybe the ancients walked more flat-footed then due to the shoes?
A layer of sheepskin in the boot sometimes helps. Especially when standing and marching in armour all weekend!
Wormwood placed in the shoes is also supposed to ease aching feet! There might be something in this, as Absinthe is made from the stuff!!
Numbing the feet?????
Regards,
caligae - claudia crisis - 06-10-2006
Strangley enough, my husband is rather flat footed but the caligae being flat seem to suit him better. He has less trouble than all of the others. Also perhaps becouse he tends to walk more flat than heel & toe.
Should be a benefit to be flat footed then - needs practice to walk in them.
I find my feet more painful when I change back into modern shoes.
I think its just the sheer time spent standing which you dont normally do (not natural is it?).
Hilary
Re: Caligae and foot pain....help? - Peroni - 06-10-2006
That's it in one! It isn't natural for our soft modern bodies to be standing in 20Kg of Roman armour all day. We aren't used to it, few of us train to do it either. We just turn up at the event, no exercise, no warm-up and expect to be comfortable all weekend!
I did manage to train in a mail shirt for the fortnight leading up to our group's walk along Hadrian's Wall and I'm bloody glad I did!
Regards,
Re: Caligae and foot pain....help? - arklore70 - 06-10-2006
A couple of things that I have found that work for my caligae.
IF the leather is too hard and not broken in, use either neatsfoot oil or lanolin. It will soften it up rather nice.
I have seen many a re enactor insert some sort of "Dr. Scholl's" style insert into their caligae and then stitch in a light weight piece of leather over it.
Undones work great also for hiding inserts.
Peroni makes a great point that many folks are just not used to the weight of the gear and wearing it all weekend long. Nothing beats training.
Seriously though, if one were to wear their hamata or segmentata under a coat, etc.. and go for a evening walk, it would do a lot to strengthen lower back muscles and leg muscles and build the body's endurance up quite a bit. Not to mention the extra benefit of it being quite the calorie/fat burner.
Here is a trick I use when wearing heavy loads in the work place as well on my Roman Weekends...change the stance and position of your feet a bit. If you keep your legs at about shoulder length width apart or a tiny bit more, it alleviates a lot of the pressure on your feet and back.
Cheers!!
Mike
Caligae - Celer - 06-11-2006
Salve Peronis,
Romans probably did walk flat-footed as the few original caligae that I have seen all have fairly even wear on the studs, whereas with ours we tend to wear down the studs on the heels pretty quickly with our rolling step.
Vale,
Celer.
caligae & foot pain - claudia crisis - 06-12-2006
Have you tried those littel transparent gel things (I think they may be Scholl - possibly called "Pretty feet") advertised for girlies out dancing in unfeasibly high shoes.
Supposed to work a miracle.
If not perhaps if we find out what these football coaches use on the magic sponge...........
Hilary
Re: Caligae and foot pain....help? - Martin Moser - 06-13-2006
Hi,
back to the original question:
Quote:One idea I had was to wear Calcei, then I could insert an orthotic to help with arch support but I don't know if they were in use during the mid first centuary. I'd appreciate any advice.
They certainly were, we have depictions of them as well as finds dated to the first century. Foot soldiers are practically invariably shown with caligae though, AFAIK.
For late 1st century you might also consider the earlier finds from Vindolanda. See http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic.php?t=7147 for reference
Re: caligae - Martin Moser - 06-13-2006
Quote:All re-enactment groups tend to wear the same style caligae, based on the same artefact.
Based on more or less the same misconception of actual artefacts (at least those I know of), I would rather say ;-) )
Quote:There is a huge variety of shoes at Vindolanda to chose from. None actually look like this "standard" military shoe. However, there are a number of closed shoe styles which you may want to look at.
Note that they mostly fall into the 2nd century, though. Some are late 1st, apparently, which is when the caliga seems to start going out of "fashion".
Re: Caligae and foot pain....help? - Flavius Promotus - 06-13-2006
Martinus - have you considered wearing a layer of felt inside your caligae? As far as I can recall, there have been a few finds of Roman boots with a felt inly still inside.
if you make your own - richsc - 06-13-2006
If you do make your own, you can insert the gel pads between the layers, trimming as necessary.