CA´LIGA
CA´LIGA a strong and heavy shoe, or rather sandal,
worn by the Roman soldiers. Although the use of this species of calceamentum
extended to the centurions, it was not worn by the superior officers. Hence
the common soldiers, including centurions, were distinguished by the name of
caligati (
Suet.
Aug. 25,
Vitell. 7;
οἱ
ἀπὸ κάλεγος,
Dig. 27,
1,
10). Service in the ranks was also designated after
this article of attire. Thus Marius was said to have risen to the consulship
a caliga, i.e. from the ranks (Sen.
de Benef. 5.16), and Ventidius
juventam inopem in caliga militari tolerasse (
Plin. Nat. 7.135). The Emperor Caligula
received that cognomen when a boy, in consequence of wearing the caliga,
which his father Germanicus put on his son in order to please the soldiers.
(
Tac. Ann. 1.41;
manipularis habitus, Suet.
Calig. 9.) The
triumphal monuments of Rome show most distinctly the difference between the
caliga of the common soldier and the calceus worn by men of higher rank.
When Cicero says of “Epicrates,” i. e. Pompey, “mihi
caligae ejus non placebant” (
ad Att. 2.3), a
breach of the
convenances is implied. The caliga
exhibits a number of straps, through which the foot is partially seen, as in
the figure of the Roman soldier from the Arch of Severus, engraved under ARMA; while the
CALCEUS is an ordinary closed shoe. The sole of the
caliga was thickly studded with hobnails (
clavi
caligarii,
Plin. Nat. 34.143;
caligares, id. 9.69: cf. Juv.
Sat.
3.248, 322, 16.24;
ἧλοι, Jos.
B.
J. 6.1, 8).
The
caliga speculatoria (Suet.
Calig. 52), made for the use of couriers [SPECULATOR], was probably much lighter than the
ordinary shoe worn by the soldiers.
[
J.Y] [
W.W]
