crepida

plural crepidae

1. Ancient RomeAncient GreeceA type of footwear consisting of a sole attached to the foot with fairly elaborate straps, distinguished by the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans from sandals proper but now usually considered a style of sandal.

   He had even been known to go out and about dressed in ancient Macedonian style to mimic his hero – the flat kausia hat and the crepidae shoes.

   2019, Alex Gough, Emperor’s Knife (The Imperial Assassin; 2), London: Canelo, published 2022, →ISBN

   5 more examples

   There was likewise found an abundant variety of shoes; the heavy caliga, or sandal, worn by the Roman soldiers, studded under the sole with large-headed nails, the calceus or buskin (3) and the more delicate crepida (4), or slipper looped in the leather on each side of the instep, in like manner with the buskin.

   1854, “Ancient London.—No. IX.”, in The Home Friend; A Weekly Miscellany of Amusement and Instruction, volume IV, number 91, London: […] Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge […], pages 300–301

   The museum, though small, contains some very interesting objects classified in groups. In one case are Roman and other shoes, sandals, and crepidæ; […]

   1866 July 20, “The Annual Congress of the Archæological Institute”, in The Building News and Engineering Journal: […], volume XIII, London: […] Proprietor of the “Building News,” [John Passmore Edwards] […], page 484, column 3

   The sole of the crepida was usually thick and leather covered the sides and heel of the foot. The crepida, considered the shoe for traveler, young man and warrior, varied in style for civilian and soldier.

   1948, R[uth] Turner Wilcox, “Roman Footwear”, in The Mode in Footwear, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons; London: Charles Scribner’s Sons, Ltd, page 31

   What restlessness could have made the goddess trample the earth so fast under the crepidae twisted up on her legs like the sandals of our Romanian frontier guards.

   1984, Romanian Review, volume 38, page 74

   Crepidae often covered the foot up to or including the ankle, and they sometimes covered the toes, not a regular feature of the sandal. An excellent example of crepidae with high layered, multicolored soles is depicted in the room of the initiation in the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii, as worn by Ariadne.

   1994 December, Norma Goldman, “Roman Footwear”, in Judith Lynn Sebesta, Larissa Bonfante, editors, The World of Roman Costume (Wisconsin Studies in Classics), Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, published 2001, →ISBN, part I (Roman Garments, Hairstyles, Accessories), page 114, column 1