gallicae

GA´LLICAEsc. soleae or crepidae, were a kind of low shoes intermediate between the calcei, which were half-boots, and the soleae, which did not cover the foot at all. They thus resembled the CREPIDAE, but were reckoned by the Latin writers among the SOLEAE; the question to which class they belong is discussed in Gell. 13.22(21), § 5. Two specimens, from Gaulish figures on a relief found at Rome, are given by Rich (s. v.); one of these is without any fastening, like a slipper, the other laced in front. The wearing of gallicae, as of other soleae, was accounted negligent if not effeminate; a point which comes out in the only two classical passages where they are mentioned. In Gellius (Gell. 13.22) the story is told of one Castricius, a professor of rhetoric under Hadrian, who rebuked his pupils for coming to his lecture tunicis et lacernis indutos et gallicis calciatos; not wearing the toga might be excused by custom, but coming soleati was altogether wanting in decorum. So Cicero contrasts his own travelling dress with that of Antonius, cum calceis et toga, nullis nec gallicis nec lacerna (Phil. 2.30.76). The etiquette which prescribed the wearing of calcei within the city, and in official dress everywhere,. has been noticed under CALCEUS: we add Cic. in Verr. 5.3. 3, § 86; in. Pis. 6.13. Under the later empire gallicae were much more generally worn, and various sorts are mentioned as in common use among the price-lists of the Edict of Diocletian ( gallicae viriles rusticanae bisoles, gallicae viriles monosoles, gallicae cursoriae, Ed. Diocl. 9, 12 ff.; Marquardt, Privatl. 577).

Gallic shoes, the French galoches, English goloshes. They were low shoes, not reaching quite so high as the ankle, had one or more thick soles, and small upper leather, which was entirely open over the front of the instep, like the modern golosh and the right-hand figure in the illustration; or laced in front, and fastened by a ligature round the top, as in the lefthand example; whence they are classed among the soleae by the Latin writers, to distinguish them from the regular calcei, which were close-fitting high-lows that completely enveloped the foot and ankle. They were partially adopted at Rome before the age of Cicero, and were worn with the lacerna; but such a style of dress was regarded as indecorous and anti-national (Cic. Phil. ii. 30; Gell.xiii. 21). Under the Empire they came into more common use, and were made for all classes.