Perones

[Bert R]

Does anyone have more info and photo's of Pero / Perones?
http://www.roman-reenactor.com/pero%20ro...shoes.html

I would like to make mself these shoes for my republican roman legionaire.



And in the same time can i ask if you think that the boots of this Carolingian soldier in the second link could be picturing perones aswel? http://www.hist.uzh.ch/fachbereiche/mitt...cholz.html

Thanks.
B

[Tarbicus]

I've been looking at the farmer's boot recently as well. Here are the links I've found, including reconstructions by commercial makers to see how they interpret them.

http://www.res-bellica.com/prodotti.asp?ln=EN&c=5
The World of Roman Costume
Shoes: Their History in Words and Pictures
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Ro.../Pero.html
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/cloth...otwear.htm
http://www.knieriem.net/category.php?id_...lang=1&p=3
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-car...melist.htm
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-car...mshoe2.htm

As you can see, most interpretations use lacing, but I've been wondering if there was an even simpler type that had no lacing, as most descriptions are of a supple, untanned boot made to snugly fit the farmer, which would indicate that lacing might not be necessary except to tie at the top and the top of the boot is folded over the tie to stop it snagging, and the central piece running up the top of the foot and lower leg at the front may have been to strengthen the pero and fill in the front gap. Speculatively, the move to carbatinae and caligae may have been due to the citizen-soldier no longer needing to return to his fields outside of campaign season?

That's why I also looked at the Sioux hard-soled mocassin for ideas on construction to make it one-piece on the foot, with the addition of the higher piece covering the lower leg sewn on above the ankle.

http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/native/sk...casins.htm
http://www.inquiry.net/images/rrm086.gif

Angus McBride's interpretation

[Tarbicus]

As a potential alternative to iron hobnails, there is evidence of rawhide strips used for traction, described in Roman Crafts (ed. Strong & Brown), a shoe sole in the leatherwork chapter by J.W. Waterer, found in London, which I mentioned here years ago:

"The upper side of a shoe sole in which the customary hobnails are replaced by rawhide lacing. The upper was attached by sewing through the holes around the edge. The roughness of the lacing would have been covered by the insole."

A line of rawhide stitching runs parallel to the entire border of the sole. Within that a line of stitching divides the foot in half (toe to heel), and another runs across (beneath the ball of the foot), like a crucifix within the border.

[tiberius aemilius naso]

Thanks for the links! I've been thinking on this for my Republican impression. Quite difficult. Last October i went to the Volterra Museum and took a lot of pictures of cineray urns from the III and II century BC, taking a look specially to shoes... almost everything shown there are closed shoes. Take a look:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/

[Tarbicus]

Great stuff, thanks!

Here's a Christies photo showing patches the colours still present on a 2nd-C BC Etruscan urn. The pteryges were quite colourful.

[Tarbicus]

Dan Diffendale's Flickr photostream is handy.

[Bert R]

Nice!
I started looking myself more in the Etruscan era for more details.

many thanks all!

[Tarbicus]

From 'Greek and Roman Dress A TO Z', by Liza Cleland, Glenys Davies and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones:

"pero, perones (L) Closed LEATHER SHOES worn outdoors, especially by the poor and COUNTRY dwellers: could, however, simply denote the shoes worn by anyone not entitled to calcei (see processional frieze of Ara Pacis Augustae). Perones appear to have covered the ankles, cf. BOOTS. Juvenal alludes to a pero altus, presumably coming further up the leg, worn for cold and ice."

"bardaicus (L) A MILITARY shoe or BOOT, named after an Illyrian tribe. Juvenal, 16.13; Martial, 4.4.5 (vardaicus)."

"BOOTS High boots that covered the foot, the ankle and the whole or part of the shin were made of LEATHER, sometimes lined with FELT or FUR for extra warmth. Originally a generic term for footwear, by the fifth century BC embas mainly meant a rough cheap boot, worn outdoors by men. This was made of leather with a long tongue hanging over the top in front of the lacing, and separate linings (piloi, pellytra) of thin leather, which sometimes had overhanging flaps on the top edges."

"calceamen; calciamentum (L) A calf-length BOOT; general term for SHOES. Suetonius, Augustus 73."

"endromides, endromis (G/L) A short HUNTING BOOT or BUSKIN worn by ATHLETES in foot-races and by ARTEMIS: split up the inside to make them easier to put on. The word also denoted MILITARY boots and, in Latin, a thick woollen CLOAK to keep out the cold after exercise. Callimachus, Hymn to Artemis 16; Greek Anthology 4.253; Juvenal, 3.103, 6.246; Martial, 4.19.4."

[Martin Moser]

Thanks for all the links and citations - very interesting. All linking of existing images and finds must remain speculative of course as there seems to be no proven connection between the word pero and any one image/find.

Cheers,
Martin