a side-view of such an ornamented boot, decorated all over with a pattern like the Grecian volute.

The sole of the cothurnus was of the ordinary thickness in general, but it was occasionally made much thicker by the insertion of slices of cork, when the wearer wished to add to his height, and thus the Athenian tragedians, who assumed this boot as the most dignified of coverings for the feet, had the soles made unusually thick, in order that it might add to the magnitude and dignity of their whole appearance.

The unchanging nature of a commodious fashion capable of adoption by the lower classes, may be well illustrated by fig. 2, plate 2, which delineates the shoe or sandal worn by the rustics of ancient Rome. It is formed of a skin turned over the foot, and secured by thongs passing through the sides, and over the toe, crossing each other over the instep, and secured firmly round the ancle. Any person familiar with the prints of Pinelli, pictures of the modern brigands of the Abruzzi, or the models of the latter worthies in terra-cotta to be met with in most curiosity shops, will at once recognise those they wear

as being of the same form. The traveller who has visited modern Rome will also remember to have seen them on the feet of the peasantry who traverse the Pontine marshes; and the older Irish, and the comparatively modern Highlander, both wore similar ones, they were formed of the skin of the cow or deer, with the hair on them, and were held on the feet by leather thongs. They were the simplest and warmest kind of foot-covering to be obtained when every man was his own shoemaker.

There was a form of shoe worn at this early time in which the toes were entirely uncovered, and of which an example is given in pl. 2, fig. 3. It is copied from a marble foot in the British Museum. This shoe appears to be made of a pliable leather, which fits closely to the foot, for it was considered as a mark of rusticity to wear shoes larger than the foot, or which fitted in a loose and slovenly manner. The toes in this instance are left perfectly free; the upper leather is secured round the ancle by a tie, while a thong, ornamented by a stud in its centre, passing over the instep, and between the great and

second toe, is secured to the sole in the manner of a sandal. In order that the ancle-bone should not be pressed on or incommoded in walking, the leather is sloped away, and rises around it to a point at the back of the leg.

None but such as had served the office of Edile were allowed to wear shoes of a red colour, which we may therefore infer to have been as favorite color for shoes, as it appears to have been among the Hebrews, and as it is still in Western Asia. The Roman Senators wore shoes or buskins of a black colour, with a crescent of gold or silver on the top of the foot. The Emperor Aurelian forbade men to wear red, yellow, white, or green shoes, permitting them to be worn by women only, and Heliogabalus forbade women to wear gold or precious stones in their shoes, a fact which will aid us in understanding the sort of decoration indulged in by the earliest Hebrew women, of whose example Judith may be quoted as an instance, to which we have already referred.

The Roman soldiers generally wore a simple form

of sandal similar to the example given in pl. 2, fig. 4, and which is a solea fastened by thongs, yet they, in the progress of riches and luxury, went with the times and merged into foppery, so that Philopoemon, in recommending soldiers to give more attention to their warlike accoutrements than to their common dress, advises them to be less nice about their shoes and sandals, and more careful in observing that their greaves were kept bright and fitted well to their legs. When about to attack a hill-fort or go on rugged marches, they wore a sandal shod with spikes similar to that in pl. 2., fig. 5, and at other times they had soles covered with large clumsy nails like those of fig. 6, which exhibits the sole of a Roman soldier's sandal covered with nails, and which was discovered in London some few years ago; it is copied from an engraving in the Archæological Album, and the shoe itself which forms fig.7, shows the length of these nails and the way in which the upper leather was constructed of the sandal form, like those of the Persepolitan figures already alluded to. The Greeks and Romans used shoes of this kind as frequently as

the early Persians, and in fig. 7, we have an example of such a combination of sandal and shoe as they wore, the upper leather being cut into a series of thongs, through which passes a broad band of leather, which turns not inelegantly round the upper part of the foot, and is secured by passing many times round the ancle and above it, where it is buckled or tied.

The Roman shoes then had various names, and were distinct badges of the position in society held by the wearer. The Solea, Crepida, Pero, and Soccus, belonged to the lower classes, the labourers and rustics, the Caliga was principally worn by soldiers, and the Cothurnus, by tragedians, hunters, and horseman, as well as by the nobles of the country.

The latter kind of boot in form and colour as we have already hinted was indicative of rank or office. Those worn by senators we have noticed, and it was a joke in ancient Rome against men who owed respect solely to the accident of birth or fortune that his nobility was in his heels. The boots of the emperors were frequently richly decorated, and the patterns still existing upon marble statues show that they were