ABSTRACT
The aim of the Antonine monument at Ephesus (formerly called the Parthian monument), whose relief decoration is largely on display in Vienna, lies in the exaltation of this dynasty. Key information is encoded in the adoption scene, where Antoninus Pius is appointed successor by Hadrian in the presence of his own future successors, the young Marcus Aurelius and the child Lucius Verus, an event that took place in Rome in 138 ad. This chapter will focus on the footwear of the figures displayed, as much as preservation and incomplete workmanship and the monument’s elevated position allows. The importance of garments for the construction of the identity of a Roman figure is widely recognised, but footwear, an often underestimated and completely neglected detail of costume, was also selected very carefully. Why does each figure wear certain footwear? What were the models for the different kinds of footwear? Was the footwear contemporary and used by real people or already out of fashion, or even fanciful in order to add value to a figure? The footwear will be considered for the choice and appropriateness of shoes in relation to the costume of the entire figure, parallels for shoe types will be looked for. This examination instructs us not only about ancient shoes, clothing and fashions, but also about the dynamics of visual language in Roman Imperial art, and about how visual communication was constructed and the way real and imaginary elements were applied in constantly varying ways to one single monument.
