[image ALT: Much of my site will be useless to you if you've got the images turned off!]
mail:
Bill Thayer 		[image ALT: Cliccare qui per una pagina di aiuto in Italiano.]
Italiano 		[Link to a series of help pages]
Help 		[Link to the next level up]
Up 		[Link to my homepage]
Home
For Smith's general article on Roman shoes, see CALCEUS.

 p1048  Soccus

Article by James Yates, M.A., F.R.S.,
on pp1048‑1049 of

William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.:
A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.

SOCCUS, dim. SO′CCULUS, was nearly if not altogether equivalent in meaning to Crepida, and denoted a slipper or low shoe, which did not fit closely, and was not fastened by any tie (Isid. Orig. XIX.34).º Shoes of this description were worn, more especially among the Greeks together with the Pallium, both by men and by women. But those appropriated to the female sex were finer and more ornamented (Plin. H. N. IX.35 s56; Soccus muliebris, Suet. Calig. 52, Vitell. 2), although those worn by men were likewise in some instances richly adorned according to the taste and means of the wearer (Plaut. Bacch. II.3.98).

[image ALT: An engraving of a masked man in a kind of shift, dancing on one foot, and wearing soft slipper-like shoes. It is an illustration of the type of ancient Roman shoe called the soccus.]

 p1049  For the reasons mentioned under the articles Baxa and Crepida the Soccus was worn by comic actors (Hor. Ars Poët. 80, 90), and was in this respect opposed to the Cothurnus (Mart. VIII.3.13; Plin. Epist. IX.7). The preceding woodcut is taken from an ancient painting of a buffoon [Mimus], who is dancing in loose yellow slippers (luteum soccum, Catull. Epithal. Jul. 10). This was one of their most common colours (De L'Aulnaye, Salt. Théat. pl. IV). [Solea.]

[image ALT: Valid HTML 4.01.]

Page updated: 15 Dec 06

Accessibility