Letters have been recovered from a garrison at Hadrian’s Wall have revealed officers and their men begging family back home to send them extra subuclae (vests) and abollae (heavy cloaks).
Another soldier urged his loved ones to send him “Paria udonum ab Sattua solearum duo et subligariorum duo” which translates as “socks, two pairs of sandals and two pairs of underpants”.
The latest evidence corroborates the socks and sandal theory which first emerged when a Roman copper razor handle was recovered from the Tees near Darlington. It was in the shape of a foot adorned with an open-toed sandal and woollen sock.
It gets cold on the frontier!
Turns out socks with sandals was always in style