Caligae

The word denotes a Caliga made ​​of leather footwear, in it was a military boot of the Roman legionary.

Even if Caligae are repeatedly confused with sandals, they are completely different constructs. It is a very robust, open march shoe with soles of up to three layers of cowhide. The soles were studded with iron nails. In the simple Legionnaire ever were 80 to 90 iron nails with hemispherical heads (Latin clavi ). The top layer of the sole formed at the same time the upper leather. It was a single piece of leather that has been sewn together at the heel and was cut so that a system of tabs created on the dorsum of the foot, which were tied with a leather strap.

The footwear of the Roman soldiers were also the (not entirely serious ) name for the film genre of sandals film. It also provided for the Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus for the ( later ) nickname Caligula ( Diminutive to caliga ), as this of his childhood spent according to the mention in Cassius Dio in military camps of the army and thereby tailored to its size Legionnaire clothing including boots wore.