Living in barracks: when the cat is away...

[Crispianus]

Thanks. But this brings me a follow-up question: how do they know which styles were favoured by which sex? Could they tell this by statues, for example? Or grave goods?

well that's the 64 dollar question that I have been frequently asked at events, the other one is do you know of any female shoes from XYZ...

To quote from C.Van Driel Murray in "Stepping Through Time".

"In Roman complexes the differentiation between mens and womens sizes lies around continental size 35 with most adult men being between 37-40"

So shoes of less the size 37 could be adult female with most likely the majority grouped around size 35 and a bit below.

" Large numbers of childrens shoes are a feature of Roman complexes. Carbatinae are the most favoured form of footware for children, but otherwise there is no difference between adults and childrens shoes."

Calcai are universal and since most survive with only the soles its probarbly not possible to determine the style in most cases though there are I think exceptions, the construction, shape of the sole and hobnail patterns may present a clue when comparing with relatively complete examples. Hobnails themselves dont necessarily determine the style as all styles can be made with or without nails.

As to Favoured Styles I think only a few are known and is probably because they dont occur or are infrequent in male sizes, in any case larger more complex styles would have to be simplified when converting to smaller sizes and visa versa, again there are exceptions.

On shoes in art, Pliny: "ne supra crepidam sutor iudicaret"

Best Regards