2. WALKING ON DIFFERENT KINDS OF SURFACES
The traction of the nailed footwear on soft and slippery ground was remarkable. Climbing up muddy slopes and wet, steep forest tracks (e.g. in the Brenner Pass) was not difficult at all, whereas those participants with modern boots or sandals were clearly at a disadvantage. Interestingly, the Roman boots proved themselves superior to modern footwear also on the remnants of two Roman roads carved into rock: first at Klais (Upper Bavaria - Fig. 1), then at Franzensfeste (South Tyrol - Fig. 2).
The track was wet with rain, so initially it was feared the entire group would slip and skid down the ‘Gleisstrecke’ at Klais. Instead, those wearing nailed boots got along well, provided they took care of where they placed their feet. Two participants with sandals and sneakers slipped and slid on the wet rock.
On a later, 5-day journey of mountaineering in the high Alps, the boot’s performance on stone showed the same results. The tiny dents and cracks of weathered rock always provided sufficient traction for the cone shaped nails of Roman boots. (Fig. 3).
The situation completely changed when the group inspected a subterranean excavation at Trent and had to walk on the well preserved remnants of a paved road (Fig. 4).
Here, the stones were so smooth that the calceati had great difficulties in standing upright, not to mention walking[SUP]10[/SUP]. The difference between the exposed roads at Klais and Franzensfeste, and the slippery road ‘under’ Trent, can possibly be explained by the heavy erosion of the two former sections over the centuries. Or perhaps different kinds of stone were used.
Modern shoes were only superior to the Roman boots on modern paved roads, where every step with nailed footwear could be felt in the knees, hips and the back. Long distances on asphalt roads led to a feeling of burning pain in the feet, plus nail tips coming up through the insole (see 4, below).
Hard, dried out clay covered with gravel was not much more comfortable to walk on. Some of the participants had problems already during the first two days, although the group had only very rarely marched on asphalt roads. Gravel surfaces were even more unpleasant, plus were more destructive for the nails. This is surprising as Roman roads often consisted of gravel[SUP]11[/SUP].
During the march, the group did not have to walk on snow. However, a couple of short hikes early in 2005 showed the “Ramshaw” boots to be superior to modern footwear also under winter conditions. Walking up and down steep slopes was done without difficulties, despite a layer of slippery leaves hidden under the snow. On compressed snow, it was possible to walk fast. Marching on such a soft surface was much more comfortable than on hard terrain (like asphalt roads). Walking in deep snow made the socks soaking wet, but the feet stayed warm as long as one kept moving.
10. The situation very much resembled an incident mentioned by Flavius Josephus, Jewish War 6, 85: a centurion named Julianus is killed in action after falling on the ground because "τα γαρ ύποδήματα πεπαρμενα πυκνοις καί οξεσιν ήλοις έχων, σπερ τ ν λλων στρατιωτων έκαστος, και κατα λιθοστρωτου τρεχων υπολισθανει, πεσων δ’ ύπτιος μετα μεγίστου της πανοπλίας ήχου…" (“wearing, like any other soldier, shoes thickly studded with sharp nails, while running across the pavement he slipped and fell on his back, with a loud clash of armour”) (Translat. H. St. J. Thackeray, Loeb Library).
According to Tac. Hist. 2, 88, 3, the Vitellian legionaries at Rome often “slid on slippery pavement or after a collision with somebody else” (aut ubi lubrico viae vel occursu alicuius procidissent), and started to rough up the locals 'in revenge’. (I want to thank Jon Coulston for drawing my attention to this source).
11. Cp. for the roads in Roman Germany H. Bender, Roemischer Strassen- und Reiseverkehr, L. Wamser, (ed.), Die Roemer zwischen Alpen und Nordmeer: Zivilisatorisches Erbe einer europäischen Militärmacht, Munich, 2000 (reprint 2005), 254, Fig. 210, 256, Fig. 212, and esp. 260.
Fig. 1–2: Roman roads at Klais (left) and Franzensfeste (right).
Fig. 3: mountaineering with Roman footwear.
Fig. 4: The slippery Roman road at Trent.
) отличаются своей особенной фантазийностью. А что уж ожидать от того, что там в Риме для туристов продается?
