New Shoes
One of the reasons, it is my theory, that Ancient Rome was
so successful in conquering the Western World of its time, is their footwear. Yeah, they built really the best roads of
their time. I say, of their time, which means they laid down stones, since paving technology was centuries away in
the future. I have been to Rome and I
have walked and even driven on parts
of the Appian Way, one of their major roads in, around and out of
Ancient Rome. It is still there! Parts of it anyway. Lots of it are cordoned off as Historical
Archival Cite, but parts of it have, out of necessity, still have to be
used. Like around the Coliseum, like
what else are ya gonna do? Can’t like move the Coliseum – it’s still a bit
big for that and most of the buildings around it date from the same
period. Can’t move those either.
That old Roman road is bone-jarring
bumpy! It is car suspension destroying
and nearly lethally slippery when it rains.
But parts of it are over 2500 years old!
That is good engineering and
construction. And, if you want to move
large weaponry, tens of thousands of military troops and other needs for
conquest and control, he who has the best roads and/or transportation is most
likely gonna come out on top.
However, a big however,
is those troops on the march, have to
march on their feet. Now, human feet are .. like .. human and
subject to .. like .. pain! Bare feet (no shoes) can march, even run, on
grass, dirt, forest paths, even mud.
Bare, non-shoed, feet do not do well on f’ing stone! You can roll your heavy weaponry and stuff on
wheels on stone roads. It’ll clatter,
it’ll jar around and the wheels may break down from time to time – but the
wheels are not flesh and bone. Wheels do not feel pain! You can put iron,
or steel if your tech is that far along, around the wheels and get more milage
per break-down on stone. Iron and steel
don’t do well on human feet.
So, what is the answer?
If your goal is to reek warfare and/or move profitable commerce
efficiently, what do you do about the human feet that have to deal with
those great stone paved roads? The answer is, of course, good
shoes. Invent new shoe technology that can deal with the
new road technology. Very quickly that is precisely what the
Ancient Romans did.
Caligae, heavy-soled military shoes or sandals which were worn by Roman
legionary soldiers and auxiliaries throughout the history of the Roman Republic
and Empire. Wikipedia
Bare in mind that these Roman Soldier Shoes were not .. like .. Super-Nike competition
marathon running comfortable. The
best ones were hobnailed, in that
they did have iron studs riveted on the bottom-most sole. Over that was another thick piece of
leather. These boot-sandal like shoes were pretty thick leather and it has been
determined that they were probably kind of heavy. In cold weather they are noted to have
possibly added some kind of fabric sock,
or other type of insulating materials (thinner leather sock).
All-in-all this Roman Soldier footwear, like their roads,
were better than anything their opposition
had. It was the custom of the times,
that professional military had to
supply their own uniforms. Or, if you
got paid to commit warfare, you were
expected to provide your own stuff, or at least pay for it. As a
consequence, a lot of the Roman Soldier Dudes bought all the useable stuff the dudes getting out of the
military had. This meant, by and large,
that shoes that were still serviceable were cheaper and pretty well
broken in.
Heavy, hobnailed, urine cured leather (no pleather or artificial leather was available) shoes were not made right and left either. Or, new, these shoes would have just
plain killed any person’s feet until they were broken in. What does all this
mean? It means, new shoes are within a very unique category of technology and
clothing; or clothing technology. Not a matter of History often thought
about or even broadly considered. Not
much scholarly effort has been put into this little bit of consideration.
Some great General once said, “An Army travels on its
stomach.” Which is kind of
bullshit. An Army mostly travels on its f’ing feet. Oh yeah, ya gotta have food or the foots
don’t work good, but the first thing to hit the ground is the f’ing
foot. I have also heard that in trench warfare the most valuable item is
not food, but dry socks!.
I have done a lot
of on-line research on this topic and it surprises me how little study has been
done on this topic; at least in English.
I have searched Google. I have
searched hi & lo, large text and
regular in non-fiction History in my
local library, which has network to four other libraries. Almost nothing – well .. nothing .. actually. There is one
book I have found which is title 10,000 Years of Shoes – and it’s out-of-print and available only from Specialty Bookstores!! And, it ain’t cheap and I ain’t got the money to buy it.
Which, makes all of my writing in this little
blog pretty much conjecture. I’m openly
admitting that. I’m more of a conjecturizing philosopher than any kind
of historical researcher and I openly
admit that. Still it makes sense … right?
I mean .. like .. the new shoes bit?
More, later, in New Shoes II.
Note: for the brave among my dear readers, I offer a new, separate but different blog:
A study in a matter of theory and conjecture about human brain-mind development towards retaining ever increasing meta-cognitive development. Based on Mathematics, and I refer to Base 3 Calculus. I wouldn’t expect a whole lot of people to give it a try. But if you are in any manner open-minded and intellectually curious, the Math used is truly only a tool to condense the theory proposed.
Thank you Dear Reader and Joy be unto you.
dalepeterson.us
Just published “Twelve Roses for Kathy – A journey on a motorcycle out of the darkness of bipolar disorder”
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