THE GLANTES FERREI. 73 



It may have been possibly a piece of iron turned round 

 to the figure of the liorse's hoof, and which was then 

 fastened on by rivets or otherwise to the leinnisci, 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 horse- 

 shoe. It is therefore probable that these metal plates, or 

 acorns of iron, used to strengthen their soiap, 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 lejnnisci, and if not these, with the 

 sparteum opus, which was rarely honoured with the title 

 of so/ea.''^ 



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 iro)i 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.'^ 



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 fre- 

 quently shod with an iron shoe to guard them from wear. 

 The Roman solece may have resembled these, and it is 

 possible that on other, though rarer, occasions they may 



' Op. cit. p. 25. 

 "" Fegetius Renatus. Of the Distempers of Horses, &c., p. 275. 



