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Trying on Roman military costume for the first time, I've been very struck by two things: Firstly how slippery the hob nailed sandals are on tiled floors! They're fine outside, but quite lethal indoors. Does anyone else find this? How did real Romans cope? The other thing is the lack of keepers on the 'other' side of the various buckles, so that the straps flap about. Could they have been fastened down with leather loops or ties which haven't survived archaeologically - it's certainly what I feel like doing.
Many thanks.
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Flavius Josephus mentiones a Roman centurio running on the Temple square in Jerusalem during the siege of 70 AD and slipping after which he cant get up quickly enough and is killed by the Judaean rebels.
How real Romans coped i am not sure.. Maybe they had non hobnailed soles for indoors?
dunno....
There are no buckles on Roman sandals. They were laced with leather laces. If you have proper caligae and lace them properly (and mind you, they must have a perfect fit), you will not experience any of the things you write about
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Caligae are built for outdoors, and as Henk mentioned, proper fitting ones just need to be tied up.
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This thread suggests getting a pair of non-hobnailed caligae for indoors and then using duct tape on the bottom for traction (the non-sticky side apparently is good on floors):
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat.html?fu...=entrypage
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Also, real pointed hobnails are better all around over the flat Leprevo type!
I find this indoors and out doors. You have to moderate your step while inside,and on various survaces outdoors, ie rough concrete and tarmac over finished stone and polished curbstones.., or like the Centurion from the temple, you will end up in a heap!
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Many thanks for your replies; I'm glad I'm not the only slithery Roman! Just to clarify about the buckles, I didn't mean shoe buckles - my sandals are laced as usual - I just meant all the buckles joining the bits of lorica and belts. Ancient artifacts have been found aplenty, but they don't seem to appear on engravings at all, so we can't see what happened to the flapping straps. Do re-enactors find them irritating? Is that why the Type C and Newstead armour eventually replaced the A and B?
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Well, Hugh, my period is the later Roman era, and I can tell you that our belt 'tongues' can be 50cm long! As depicted on the mosaics and paintings, the belt goes through the buckle and then then is traditionally tucked up behind the belt, and is continually wrapped around the belt until just a short section of belt tongue hangs down. In the 3rdC, we also find long dangling belts, and again, these are wrapped around the belt or tucked behind the belt to secure them. When I wear earlier period armour or belts, I use the same system .. to me it seems naturally Roman!
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well
I don't remember where Iread in one of th classics that the nhabitants of Rome had a lot of fun when province soldiers came in as they tend to slip on the marmour plate of te City.
Another interesting thing was that the Jewes were not supposed, by their ow laws, to wear caligae because the sound and the spurs they left identified roman soldiers
