It may have been possibly a piece of iron turned round to the figure of the horse's hoof, and which was then fastened on by rivets or otherwise to the lemnisci, or leather soles, and this, it is not at all impossible, might, under the pressure of necessity, have been applied directly to the foot itself, and given birth to the modern horseshoe. It is therefore probable that these metal plates, or acorns of iron, used to strengthen their soleæ, or shoes, were distinguished by the name of glantes ferrei, and the passage tells us if these were not to be had they were to be contented with the lemnisci, and if not these, with the sparteum opus, which was rarely honoured with the title of solea.’[1]
The English edition of Vegetius, published in 1748, thus translates the above passage, which relates to the treatment for disease in the hip: ‘You shall shoe his feet that are sound with an iron patten, or sandal, or if this be lacking, with a shoe made of broom, and you shall put bandages upon it, and bind it up most carefully, and so make it able to support that part which is in misery, that the animal may be able to set down his hoofs flat and full upon the ground.’[2]
At the present day, in this country, what are called poultice-bags or boots, and which are made of leather, fastening with a strap round the pastern, are very frequently shod with an iron shoe to guard them from wear. The Roman soleæ may have resembled these, and it is possible that on other, though rarer, occasions they may
