PERO
PERO The boots worn by shepherds and labourers in rough and
muddy weather were usually of untanned leather and made at home. The Greek
ἀρβύλη was of this kind. for the
epithet
πηλοπατὶς is given to it (Hipp.
Art. 828), and it was used by travellers, hunters, and
country-folk. It was apparently a low boot, or, at any rate, not so high as
the
ἐνδρομίδες, which were worn by
horsemen and hunters and covered the calves. The
ἀρβύλη in Eur.
Hippol. 1189 is merely a boot
of this kind (see Monk
ad loc.). The Roman
pero was much the same; it was of untanned leather
(
crudus,
Verg. A. 7.690), worn by ploughmen (
peronatus arator, Pers. 5.102) and by country-folk
in general (Serv.
ad Verg.
l.c.). Cato (in Fest. p. 142) says that they were used by the old
Romans. Sidonius Apollinaris describes the boots worn by Sigismer, a royal
youth of Gaul, as being made with the hair remaining upon them
(
Ep. 4.20, “primi pedes perone setoso talos adusque
vinciebantur” ) but it seems unlikely that these were identical
with the
perones of classical times. On the
monuments, among the many varieties of boot shown, several roughly answer to
the description given above, but no satisfactory identification seems
possible. (Cf. Daremberg and Saglio,
Dict. d. Antiq. s. v.
Arbylé; Mayor on
Juv. 14.186.)
[
W.C.F.A]