baxeae

BAX´EAEor BAXAE, sandals made of vegetable leaves, twigs, or fibres. According to Isidore (Orig. 19.33), this kind of sandal was worn on the stage by comic, whilst the cothurnus was appropriate to tragic actors. When, therefore, one of the characters in Plautus (Men. 2.3, 40) says, Qui extergentur baxeae? we may suppose him to point to the sandals on his feet. Philosophers also wore sandals of this description, at least in the time of Tertullian (Pall. 4) and Apuleius (Met. 2.28, 11.8; Flor. 9), and probably for the sake of simplicity and cheapness. Isidore adds, that baxeae were made of willow (ex salice), and that they were also called calones. From numerous specimens of them discovered in the catacombs, we perceive that the Egyptians made them of palm-leaves and papyrus. (Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, vol. 2. p. 336.) They are sometimes observable on the feet of Egyptian statues. According to Herodotus, sandals of papyrus (ὑποδήματα βύβλινα, 2.37) were a part of the required and characteristic dress of the Egyptian priests. We may presume that he intended his words to include not only sandals made, strictly speaking, of papyrus, but those also in which the leaves of the date-palm were an ingredient, and of which Apuleius makes distinct mention ( pedes palmeis baxeis indutum, Met. 2.8.) The accompanying woodcut shows two sandals exactly answering to this description, from the collection in the British Museum. The upper one was worn on the right foot. It has a loop on the right side for fastening the band which went across the instep. This band, together with the ligature connected with it, which was inserted between the great and the second toe, is made of the stem of the papyrus, undivided and unwrought. The lower figure shows a sandal in which the portions of the palm-leaf are interlaced with great neatness and regularity, the sewing and binding being effected by fibres of papyrus. The three holes may be observed for the passage of the band and ligature already mentioned. Tertullian speaks of gilded baxae (Idol. 8), and possibly of purple ones (Pall. 4; but the passage is corrupt).

or Baxae. Sandals made of leaves, twigs, or fibre, and worn by comic actors, while the cothurnus was peculiar to the tragic stage (Isidor. Orig. xix. 33). Philosophers also wore sandals of this description, at least in later times. Of the two baxeae shown in the accompanying illustration, the upper one was worn on the right foot. It has a loop on the right side for fastening the band which went across the instep. This band, together with the ligature connected with it, which was inserted between the great and the second toe, is made of the stem of the papyrus, undivided and unwrought. The lower figure shows a sandal in which the portions of the palm-leaf are interlaced with great neatness and regularity, the sewing and binding being effected by fibres of papyrus. The three holes may be observed for the passage of the band and the ligature already mentioned.