sculponeae

• an inferior kind of wooden shoe, Cato R. R. 59; 135, 1; Plaut. Cas. 2, 8, 59 (495); Nov. ap. Fulg. 562, 33.

SCULPO´NEAE(κρούπεζαι) were wooden shoes, made, as the name implies, each in one piece and hollowed out. They were worn only by peasants and slaves in country work (Cato, Agr. 59, 135; Plaut. Cas. 2.8, 59; Trebell. Poll. XXX. Tyr. 22; Isid. Orig. 19.34). It seems that there were also wooden shoes called calones (Paul. p. 46, 15; cf. Isid. l. c.). The Greek κρούπεζαι, κρούπαλα, κρουπέζια were, perhaps, originally merely wooden shoes, worn, as Pollux intimates, particularly by the Boeotian peasants, and so called because of the noise which they made (Poll. 7.87, 10.153). Photius (s. v. κρούπαλα) says that they were used for treading out olives. But the name belongs especially to the wooden instrument of a double block of wood with a hinge fitted to the feet and used by fluteplayers to beat time=Latin scabellum or scabillum [see under CYMBALA, and for illustration see Baumeister, Denkm. fig. 1350]. For Greek and Roman shoes in general, see CALCEUS