CĂLĂMUS, a sort of reed which the ancients used as a pen for writing. The best sorts were got from Aegypt and Cnidus.
CĂLANTĬCA. [[Coma].]
CĂLĂTHUS (κάλαθος, also called τάλαρος), usually signified the basket in which women placed their work, and especially the materials for spinning. In the following cut a slave, belonging to the class called quasillariae, is presenting her mistress with the calathus. Baskets of this kind were also used for other purposes, such as for carrying fruits, flowers, &c. The name of calathi was also given to cups for holding wine. Calathus was properly a Greek word, though used by the Latin writers. The Latin word corresponding to it was qualus or quasillus. From quasillus came quasillaria, the name of the slave who spun, and who was considered the meanest of the female slaves.
Slave presenting a Calathus. (From a Painting on a Vase.)
CALCĔUS, CALCĔĀMEN, CALCĔĀMENTUM (ὑποδήμα, πέδιλον), a shoe or boot, anything adapted to cover and preserve the feet in walking. The use of shoes was by no means universal among the Greeks and Romans. The Homeric heroes are represented without shoes when armed for battle. Socrates, Phocion, and Cato, frequently went barefoot. The Roman slaves had no shoes. The covering of the feet was removed before reclining at meals. People in grief, as for instance at funerals, frequently went barefooted. Shoes may be divided into those in which the mere sole of a shoe was attached to the sole of the foot by ties or bands, or by a covering for the toes or the instep [[Solea]; [Crepida]; [Soccus]]; and those which ascended higher and higher, according as they covered the ankles, the calf, or the whole of the leg. To calceamenta of the latter kind, i.e. to shoes and boots, as distinguished from sandals and slippers, the term calceus was applied in its proper and restricted sense. There were also other varieties of the calceus according to its adaptation to particular professions or modes of life. Thus the [Caliga] was principally worn by soldiers; the [Pero] by labourers and rustics; and the [Cothurnus] by tragedians, hunters, and horsemen. The calcei probably did not much differ from our shoes, and are exemplified in a painting at Herculaneum, which represents a female wearing bracelets, a wreath of ivy, and a panther’s skin, while she is in the attitude of dancing and playing on the cymbals. The form and colour of the calceus indicated rank and office. Roman senators wore high shoes like buskins, fastened in front with four black thongs. They were also sometimes adorned with a small crescent: we do not find on any ancient statues the crescent, but we may regard the bottom right hand figure in the annexed cut as representing the shoe of a senator. Among the calcei worn by senators, those called mullei, from their resemblance to the scales of the red mullet, were particularly admired; as well as others called alutae, because the leather was softened by the use of alum.
Greek Shoes. (From ancient Vases.)
Roman Shoes. (Museo Borbonico.)
CALCŬLĀTOR (λογιστής), a keeper of accounts in general, and also a teacher of arithmetic. In Roman families of importance there was a calculator or account-keeper, who is, however, more frequently called by the name of dispensator, or procurator: he was a kind of steward.